Mathematical Proofs
by SawdustRestaurants
Summary: Stephanie Berlin suddenly finds herself in the Marvel universe. Set slightly before the Avengers and will go to after the movie. Bruce/OC/Steve.
1. Method Acting

**Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own the Avengers. Only my OC is mine. Also, the villain in this chapter, and what happens to him, was actually in a comic book (albeit I changed a few things), so that idea isn't mine either. **

**Enjoy! Oh, and Bruce isn't in this chapter but will appear soon. **

**Chapter 1. Method Acting**

She was finally leaving work. It was 3am and she had been here for twenty hours straight, evident by the scientific articles and coffee cup rings on her desk. She slung her worn, dark brown leather messenger bag over her shoulder and headed to the elevator. The hallway was quiet; normally, it was only the late-night cleaning crew and her on the thirty-ninth floor at this hour.

Although she had walked down this hallway many times before, an eerie feeling struck her. She tried to remember if she shut-off the lights, shut down her computer, and took her cellphone and/or keys with her. After mentally checking off each one, and patting her front pockets for her cell phone and keys, she realized that something else was causing her uneasiness. Well, uneasiness wasn't exactly the right word to describe this feeling which made her feel that this wasn't quite the same hallway that she had been in numerous times before.

The ping of the elevator arriving eased her out of her thoughts, though the feeling remained. She decided against taking the elevator, preferring the stairs despite being so high up. She reasoned that it was probably her tiredness, which had sunk into every fiber of her being that caused her ominous feeling. A little exercise might shake it off.

She, that is Stephanie Berlin, was currently heading down one of the numerous staircases in the main laboratory of Pyper Industries, the current world's leading expert in military technology.

At last, she reached the lobby. Despite a current heat wave which had engulfed New York for the past three days, a cool gust of air hit her face as she exited the building. Her brain processed this information, but it failed to register due to its focus on the greater anomaly before her. Despite it being three in the morning, the outside resembled mid-afternoon; sunlight, instead of darkness, surrounded her when she walked out the door.

_Get a grip, Berlin, _She scolded herself, again attributing what she was experiencing due to her lack of sleep. She had no time to further think about it since a woman about two feet in front of her was about to get crushed by a car that was falling down. Running towards her, Stephanie was able to pull her out of the way just in time. The woman fell on top of her with an 'oof'.

"Are you all right?" Stephanie asked in a slightly wheezy voice since the woman was now laying on top of her diaphragm.

"Yes, I think so," the woman shakily replied while cautiously lifting herself off of Stephanie and offering a hand to help her up. "Thank you."

Stephanie looked up at the woman, accepting her hand. "You're Gwyneth Paltrow!…I…Wow…This is…Are you filming another movie?" _This must be why it looks as if it was sunny outside; they're filming a daytime scene at night in order to avoid a crowd of on-lookers._

Gwyneth just stared at Stephanie looking confused. "I think you have me mistaken for someone else. My name is Pepper Potts."

Stephanie was puzzled for a second then said, "You don't break character for a minute, eh? You dyed your hair red again –you must be here filming the next Iron Man movie."

"What?" The Gwyneth's face sank deeper into confusion. "My hair is naturally red."

"Right, sure." Stephanie replied, still convinced that Gwyneth was trying to remain in character. Maybe it was some weird actor quirk of remaining in character at all times.

Gwyneth, or Pepper, was about to say something when the sound of multiple cars backfiring filled the air. Wait, Stephanie realized, those were gunshots. She turned to pull Gwyneth/Pepper into the lobby of Pyper Ind. to take shelter when she realized that it was no longer there. In the place where the building should have been, a Starbucks was now there. _I know that Starbucks spring up fast, but there is no way that a Starbucks could have replaced Pyper Ind. within three minutes_, Stephanie was thinking when another round of gunshots rang out.

With her survival reflexes kicking-in, Stephanie pulled down Gwyneth/Pepper behind a nearby car. "If this is part of the movie that you're filming, it would be a _really _good time to know." she whispered to Gwyneth /Pepper.

"For the last time why do you keep mentioning a movie? I'm not an actress; I'm Tony Stark's secretar-" Gwyneth/Pepper was saying before Stephanie cut her off.

"For God's sake! Stop pretending to be Pepper, and let me know if this is real!"

"Of course it is!" Gwyneth/Pepper shouted back.

Stephanie's mind began to buzz as it usually did when she was excited or worked-up. Millions of calculations were swirling through her brain involving the nearest entrances to the subway and buildings that would have a basement, the distance to these buildings, and the direction of where the bullets were coming from. She glanced at the redheaded woman beside her, noticing that Gwyneth was wearing an expensive looking light pink blouse, grey pencil skirt, and nude high heels.

"Can you run in those?" Stephanie asked, gesturing to the high heels.

"Yes."

"Good. There's a building 500 feet to your right that I think we can make it to without getting shot. The bullets are coming from the top left, so if we-" Stephanie was explaining before she was cut off.

"What about the Grey Gargoyle?"

Stephanie had to stifle a laugh. "Grey Gargoyle? What is this some sort of comic book?"

Gwyneth/Pepper looked serious. "He'll kill us if we try to run. He was targeting me when you stepped in."

Now it was Stephanie's turn to look confused. "Targeting you?"

Stephanie peeked over the top of the car, to be met with a scene that she wasn't expecting; numerous NYPD officers were shooting at some grey thing that she saw lift up a car, with his bare hands, and throw it at the police officers. What looked to be life-size human statues were scattered around the area.

"Yes, to get revenge on Tony. Look, we don't have much time. You shoul-" but Gwyneth/Pepper was interrupted by the shadow of another car appearing over them. Stephanie reacted quickly, and pulled the possibly crazy actress underneath the truck that was nearby. The car smashed down, missing them by inches. Gwyneth/Pepper looked at her speechless.

"Where is Tony, then? Shouldn't he be here trying to save you?" Stephanie asked, feeling slightly stupid inquiring about a fictional relationship.

"He's away in Russia at the moment, so I don't think he's aware of this."

"Where are the other Avengers then? Shouldn't S.H.I.E.L.D. have sent someone?"

"How do you know about S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Gwyneth/Pepper asked.

"Yeah, yeah and I'm not suppose to know that Nick Fury is the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. or that Hawkeye's real name is Clint Barton." Stephanie was becoming increasingly annoyed at Gwyneth's persistence of staying in character. "Look, we have to figure out a way to stop this goblin then since, I'm not sure about you, but I don't want to die just yet."

"Gargoyle. The Grey Gargoyle. He has super strength and can turn people into stone." Gwyneth/Pepper responded, looking apprehensively at Stephanie after she revealed knowledge of top-secret information.

"Stone, huh? Are you sure that you're not stoned?" Stephanie giggled at her own joke, partly due to her lack of sleep and partly to the absurdity of everything that was going on around her.

Gwyneth/Pepper shot her a "what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-you" look, but Stephanie didn't notice -a sudden thought occurred to her.

"Wait, you said stone?" she asked.

"Yes. Why? I don't see how th-"

"How close are we to water?"

"The Hudson is a block down, but why-"

"Stay here. Be quiet. Don't move." interrupted Stephanie before she squeezed out from under the truck, leaving her messenger bag with Gwyneth/Pepper.

"HEY, YOU!" Stephanie shouted towards the figure that she could only assume was the Grey Gargoyle. He, at least Stephanie assumed that it was a human, turned toward her.

"Who are you?" he scoffed.

"Geeze, don't you recognize me? I'm Pepper Potts. You evil super villains really need to do your homework." She replied thankful that Gwyneth/Pepper kept her mouth shut. She just hoped that she wasn't ruining a film scene.

"You don't have red hair, and what about the other woman who I almost crushed with a car?"

"I dyed it -I was getting tired of all the ginger jokes. The other woman was a decoy, my personal bodyguard in fact, but she ran off guess Stark wasn't paying her enough for this." Stephanie replied, trying not to show the fear that was currently pumping adrenaline throughout her body.

She could see him more clearly now. He had bulking muscles like Captain America, but more disturbing was the fact that he looked as if he were chiseled out of stone.

Whatever the criteria of being a super villain was, intelligence was not one of them. The Grey Gargoyle believed her lie without any hesitation. "It would be better if you surrendered now. I would hate to see you suffer." He yelled to her as he stepped closer.

"You want me, you have to catch me." Stephanie shouted back before heading off towards the Hudson. She felt the street slightly shake under the heavy tread of the Grey Gargoyle running after her. As she darted between cars, narrowly avoiding tripping on debris, she was thankful that she was wearing her Converse instead of heels.

Finally, she reached the river. She didn't have to turn her head to know that the man -the thing?- was catching up to her. She glanced around, and finding that luck was with her, saw a small motorboat tied at the dock. Quickly untying the boat, she pushed off from the deck.

Once the motor was started, she tried provoking the Grey Gargoyle into following her by sticking out her tongue. Stephanie could sense how enraged he was at her childish action. He lunged toward the boat, catching its tail with his left hand. He climbed up, so that he was now standing on the opposite end of the small boat.

_Shit, shit_. Stephanie thought. _I'm not even that far out yet_.

A triumphant smile appeared on the Grey Gargoyle's stone features. "Looks like I've got you now."

_I need to stall him. I need to stall him._

"So, why was it so important to get me, eh?" Stephanie asked, hoping that he would take the conversational bait. If there was anything that she had learned from watching superhero movies it was that super villains love to talk about themselves and their "ingenious" schemes.

"Don't you remember?" He sneered. "Your worthless boyfriend-"

"Worthless? I'll have you know that he is the richest man in the world. He even has more money than J.K. Rowling," Stephanie added trying to elongate the conversation in order to get as far out as possible from the shore. _At least, I would assume that he is_, Stephanie silently thought.

His eyes narrowed. "Stark, the bastard, screwed up my plan."

"Your…your plan?"

"To become rich. Doesn't he tell you anything?"

_Almost there. Just a little longer. _Stephanie began to discreetly scan the floor of the boat for anything that she could use as a weapon.

"We don't talk that much, mostly spend our time in the bedroom." Stephanie lied, remembering Stark's characteristic of being a playboy. Besides, who hasn't entertained the thought of sharing a bed with Robert Downey Jr.? "So, what was this ingenious scheme?"

"I was going to become a famous by turning people into stone, and then passing them off as authentic sculptures." He answered.

"No shit." Stephanie laughed at how random all of this was. She thought that what she was experiencing must be some sort of hallucination caused by her lack of sleep.

"Now," He continued, "I plan on making Stark his own personal sculpture of you with my bare hands."

"That's how you do it? You turn people into stone using your hands?" Stephanie asked, her curiosity outweighing her fear and tiredness.

"Care to see?"

_I think that we're deep enough now,_ Stephanie thought.

"Not particularly," she answered as she picked up an oar and swung it at him in one fluid motion.

The Grey Gargoyle laughed as the oar shattered on contact with his stone body. Stephanie had expected this, and offered up a, "Hey, what's that behind you?". As the idiot turned to look behind him, she jumped into the water.

The murky water was cold, but right after she recovered from the shock of jumping in, she took a deep breath and started swimming towards the bottom of the river. The vibrations in the water signaled to her that her attacker followed. _Perfect_.

Even thought it was a pain at the time, she was thankful her uptight swim coach in high school made sure that everyone on the team could hold their breath for over a minute while underwater.

Stephanie trudged on towards the bottom of the river; she needed to be as close to the bottom as she could get.

After about a minute, she glanced behind her to see the stone weirdo struggling against his heavy body which was dragging him toward the bottom of the Hudson. She, knowing that gravity would take its course for him, started to head towards the surface. Her lungs were almost giving-in, if she continued to hold her breath for any longer, her brain cells would start to die, she would begin to slip out of consciousness, and would eventually drown.

Light was seeping into the water, indicating that she was close to the surface. Gasping for air, she summoned all of the strength left in her to pull herself onto the boat. She passed out from exhaustion at almost the exact instant that she flopped onto the boat's floor.


	2. A Broken Door

**Bruce will be in the next chapter, I promise. For now, you'll have to be satisfied with Iron Man. **

**Chapter 2. A Broken Door**

As easily as she slipped into unconsciousness, Stephanie became conscious again. Light glared at her, causing her to squint at her unfamiliar surroundings. She was alone in a room. Looking down, she noticed that her clothes had been replaced with a set of pajamas. She gingerly got out of the bed making sure that she wasn't injured. No broken bones, but her head was a little fuzzy. She silently padded across the white fluffy carpet laid on the hardwood floor towards the door. She put her ear against it to see if anyone was waiting outside. It was silent. She touched the doorknob, twisted it, but discovered that it was locked.

Scowling, Stephanie surveyed the room for other exits. There was a window that spanned the length of the room, but breaking it would mean alerting whoever owned this building that she was awake. Besides, the room she was in looked to be about a hundred floors up from the ground. Turning her attention back to the door, she decided that she could unscrew the hinges and partially remove the door from its frame. She just needed something to unscrew the hinges. Surveying the room once again, she discovered that the lamp on the nightstand would do; it had a loose screw that she could use.

Fifteen minutes had elapsed until she could pry away the door and sneak out. Her hands had become a little raw from using the tiny screw, but she paid no attention to her aching fingers just yet. Carefully, pulling the door off of its frame, Stephanie stepped out of the room and saw someone lounging on the sofa, their back facing her.

"Finally! You slept for fourteen hours. I know that women need beauty sleep, but my god." the person, a man, spoke without turning around. "You owe me a new door."

"I didn't break it. I just detached it from the frame," she replied defensively. "Who are you?"

"Better question is who you are." The man got up off of the couch, turned around, and started walking towards her. She immediately recognized him as Robert Downey Jr. "The ID cards that were in your bag didn't match any records in America. Or in any other country for that matter." He stopped a few feet away from her.

Stephanie cocked her head, staring at him. "This must be a dream. This has to be a dream, or I'm in a coma and you're a figment of my imagination. The Grey Gargoyle thing was weird enough, but now you're here with me in some random building pretending to be Iron Man and interrogating me about my identity."

"It's not a random building; it's _my_ building. My name is on it." Tony said.

"Your name is on it?"

"Yes. You know, those big letters on the front spell out Stark," he said gesturing towards window.

She studied him. He was wearing his black Sabbath t-shirt and a pair of jeans. A faint light was glowing from underneath his shirt. He looked real, but her mind could be playing tricks on her. Without really thinking, she poked him to check if he was an illusion. "Hmm, you _seem_ real, but why are you so adamant about remaining in character? Is this some sort of weird actor thing?"

"I'm a billionaire, genius, playboy, philanthropist, but I'm not an actor."

"Not an actor? C'mon, you're Robert Downey Jr.!"

"Robert? Do you really see me as a Robert? Robert Stark…Nope, don't like it. "

"You honestly believe that you're the real Tony Stark?" Pausing, she added, "Take off your shirt."

"So this is how it's going to go? Kinky. Only if you lift up yours."

"No, I'm serious. I want to see that your arc reactor chest piece is real, not just a movie prop."

He sighed, and took off his shirt. It was there, a shiny, silver object in the middle of his chest. Stephanie went to gingerly touch his chest while trying not to blush. Who hasn't entertained the thought of a shirtless Robert Downey Jr. now and then?

"Ah!" Tony shouted when she touched the area around his arc reactor, causing her to jump back. "Your hands were cold," he smirked.

"Not funny. Is...Is it possible for you to take it out a little, just so that I could see if there actually is a hole in your chest?" She asked, remembering the scene from the first Iron Man movie when Pepper had to reach through the hole to connect Tony's arc reactor to some wires. To her surprise, Tony he did. "…You're the real Tony Stark...I…"

"Impressed by my handsomeness or my incredibly personality? Or both?" he smirked as he popped the arc reactor back into place.

They were standing very close to each other, Tony still shirtless and Stephanie close to him, when the elevator pinged.

"Pepper. Great timing. Now, the fun can begin; I already have my shirt off." Tony joked while Stephanie quickly moved her hands away from his chest.

Pepper rolled her eyes as she went to stand next to Tony.

"If you are the real Tony Stark then she has to be the real Pepper Potts," Stephanie said, stressing the world 'real'. "I must be dreaming."

Tony pinched her.

"Hey! What the hell?" She hit him.

"Guess you're not dreaming." He flashed a smile to annoy her. "But I actually think this has something to do with your situation. You see this," he said holding up a black compact object, about the size of a paperback book, "can cut through the dimensions of time and space. Look familiar?"

"You shouldn't take people's things without their permission."

"And you're avoiding the topic." Tony replied. "How did you get this?"

"Found it. On the street."

"She's lying, sir." The voice of JARVIS said.

"Figures that your rather very intelligent computer system includes a lie detection feature." Stephanie grumbled while looking at Tony.

"How did you find this?" he asked again.

She sighed and decided to tell him the truth. "I made it."

"You built that?" Pepper, who had been silent up until this time, asked genuinely surprised.

"Yes."

"JARVIS?" Tony asked.

"She's telling the truth, sir." JARVIS confirmed.

"You would have to know more about astrophysics than _I _do to have created this." Tony looked at her, his eyes slightly wider than usual, showing his astonishment that she built the device.

"I read a lot." She shrugged, trying to avoid Tony's inevitable probing about her history.

"How did you come up with those calculations?"

"I started thinking of time as more flexible rather than linear which lead me to…" Stephanie went on for a little, explaining to Tony the theories and physics behind her device.

"When you turned it on, how di-," he began to ask before Stephanie cut him off.

"That's the thing. I _didn't _turn it on. It somehow started automatically even though I equipped it with numerous safety measures. To turn it on, I need to press about ten buttons, enter a password, and then enter the coordinates for where I want to go. I…I don't know how this could have happened." She confided in him. For someone who usually had trust issues, she felt comfortable enough around Tony and Pepper to tell them this.

Tony paused thinking.

"We'll go examine it in my lab."

"You can do that later. Both of you need to eat something before you pass out." Pepper ordered.


	3. The Starkinator

**Okay, so you know how I said that Bruce would be in this chapter? Well, I kind of lied but only because I decided to split this chapter into two separate ones. I know, I know. I posted the next chapter, with Bruce in it, though. **

**Chapter 3. The Starkinator **

"So," Stephanie was explaining while they were eating, "In my universe…Er, or would it be alternate dimension? I don't think that I'll ever get used to saying that…Well, anyways, where I come from Iron Man is a comic book character and some movies were based on the comic books made about him.

She decided to leave out the part about the Avengers -she realized that she ended up in this dimension before the story arc of the Avengers movie took place. She wanted to be careful about her knowledge about the Avengers; she didn't want to let something accidentally slip, and end up setting this dimension on a different course, changing what had happened in the movie.

"I hope the actor who plays me sufficiently captured my sex appeal and charm," mused Tony.

"Stephanie" Pepper began, ignoring Tony, "I'd like to thank you. For yesterday. You saved my life."

"I owe you." Tony said seriously looking at her.

"Oh, um no problem. I'm glad that you're okay." Stephanie replied touching the back of her neck, an action she did whenever she was nervous. She wasn't used to people, especially Pepper Potts, thanking her for saving their lives, and it was making her uncomfortable.

Before anyone could speak again, a man, whom Stephanie recognized as Nick Fury, burst into the room. "Stark! What the hell have you been up to? We picked up an incredible amount of energy originating from near your building yesterday!"

"You know, there's this thing called a doorbell that you might want to try. It's quite handy, let's people-" Tony was saying before Fury cut him off.

"Answer me, Stark."

Stephanie glanced at Tony anxiously. She knew that she had caused the burst of energy, albeit unintentionally, when the device somehow turned on and took her here. If he told Fury what happened, it was likely that he'd take her back to S.H.I.E.L.D., lock her up, and run dozens of tests on her.

"Just a few experiments for Stark Industries," answered Tony curtly. "Now if you don't mind, we're in the middle of dinner."

Fury continued to glare at Tony waiting for an answer.

Stephanie spoke up as something suddenly clicked in her mind; her mind began to race. "Are you _sure _that the energy originated near Tony's building?"

Fury broke his glare and turned towards her. "Yes, I'm sure." Suddenly, his face lit up in recognition. "You're the woman who stopped the Grey Gargoyle."

"I…uhm, I-"

"We've been looking for you," Fury stared at her intensely. "One of the security cameras in the area picked up footage of the scene. Funny thing is, you seemed to just appear in the middle of it. Care to explain?"

"The burst of energy must have disrupted the footage." She lied. It did make sense from a scientific standpoint -it just wasn't the truth about what really happened.

Fury continued to stare at her. "What's your na-"

"Okay, that's enough. You're bothering the new Head Research Scientist and Chief Developer of Stark Industries." Tony butted in coming to her rescue. "We'll make sure that S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't pick up any more of our experiments. Now, if you don't mind our dinner is getting cold."

Fury held Tony's gaze before heading off to the elevator. "If this happens one more time, Mr. Stark, it's on you!"

"Did you hear what he said?" Tony asked after Fury had left.

"That you really need to be more careful not to upset S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Pepper piped up sarcastically.

"That the power burst originated _in _New York. _Your _New York." answered Stephanie who knew where Tony was going with this. "That would mean that something in your world turned it on."

"Exactly!"

"Do you think we can trace the power trail?"

"It could be too weak, but we can try. Follow me -we're going to the lab." He was halfway to the elevator when he turned around, "Thanks for dinner, Pep!"

Stephanie hesitated, not wanting to abandon Pepper.

"C'mon loser, we're going to do science!" Tony yelled when he noticed that Stephanie wasn't behind him.

"Sorry." She told Pepper as she followed Tony into the elevator, leaving Pepper alone at the dinner table.

"I think we need a name for the device." Tony remarked while they were riding the down elevator to the lab.

"Like what?"

"The Starkinator?"

"Why is it named after you? I'm the one who invented it."

"But The Starkinator sounds better than The Berlininator."

Stephanie couldn't argue with that; Berlininator was a mouthful.

"What about…Oryx?" She proposed.

"You want to name a device that lets you travel to different dimensions after an African antelope?"

"I was thinking more of the character Oryx in the novel _Oryx and Crake _than an antelope."

"My name isn't in it, but it'll do." Tony consented just as the elevator doors opened.

Tony Stark's personal laboratory was, in one word, incredible. Nothing Stephanie had ever worked in compared with it. Tony's Iron Man suits were in cases on one wall of the lab, high-tech technology such as microscopes and lasers, were abundant throughout the lab, there were a few fridges in order to store blood and saliva samples, and knowing Tony beer, in another corner, and numerous canisters (which Stephanie assumed contained different types of gases) were beside some of the workbenches. All of this was just what she saw at first glance; she would soon discover more machines and high-tech devices that would make any physicist squeal in delight. She noticed some motorcycles and expensive cars in his workspace and rolled her eyes a little. Only Tony Stark could make a physics lab into a total man cave.

Pausing from her appreciation of the lab, she turned towards Tony. "Do you have it?" He nodded and tossed her device to her. "You're lucky I caught that."

Tony ignored her comment. "I want you to examine Oryx to see if anyone could have hacked into it, possibly setting it up to turn on at a specific time. I'll look into the energy specs for yesterday so that we can start tracing it."

Stephanie nodded and sat down at one of the tables. She put her hair up into a messy bun using the hair elastic that she always wore on her wrist before she started examining Oryx; ever since she was a child, she put up her hair whenever she was in deep thought.

"The circuits are fried. If someone did mess with it in my dimension, there's no way to tell." She sighed after a while of inspecting the hardware of her now defunct device. "But I don't think someone directly tampered with it. It's more likely that they latched onto the frequency with some remote device. They would have had to known the passwords for itand how it works…"

"How many people know about Oryx?"

"Just me…There were two others, but they died a couple years ago." Anticipating what Tony was about to ask, she added, "And yes, I'm the only one alive who has the notes on the project; they're in a notebook instead of stored on a computer…Well, I guess you and I are the only ones since the notebook that contains all of the information was in my bag, and I'm sure you read it." She gestured to her brown messenger bag that was sitting on one of the tables. Tony had gone through it while she was unconscious in order to discover who she was, and if she was a threat to him or Pepper. All of the items that were in Stephanie's messenger bag were now organized on the same table that the bag was on.

"Did anyone ever tell you that you have the handwriting of an eleven year-old boy?" Tony remarked confirming Stephanie's assumption that he read the notebook.

"Yes, my mother," answered Stephanie, not reacting to his comment. "Did you find anything useful with the energy trail?"

"I discerned the amplitude of the energy, but the trail is weak due to the time lapse between when you arrived and now. And-"

"Let me guess that freakish statue guy distorted it, didn't he?"

Tony nodded.

"How long will it take to filter out his energy and strength the trail?"

"Soon; I started the program a while ago."

A beep from the computer sounded signaling the completion of the program interrupted them.

"Good timing."

"I know. I'm amazed at my genius sometimes, too." He glanced at the computer screen. "The burst of energy originated somewhere between 5th Avenue and York Avenue bounded by East 72nd and East 86th."

"I guess that narrows it down a little. Let's see if we can hack into the security cameras in that area. It's a long shot, but they might have picked up someone holding a similar looking device."

After two more hours trying to track down whoever set off the device, Stephanie and Tony decided to take a break. They were getting nowhere. Dust had obscured many of the video recordings and, to Stephanie's amusement, the burst of energy did actually cause the footage of some of the security cameras to be jumpy or to cut-out in some cases.

"So…What happens now? I mean, I don't think that I can go home for now; the device is fried, and I'll have to re-calculate everything which will take a while..." Stephanie touched the back of her neck.

"I was serious when I said that you're the new Head Research Scientist and Chief Developer of Stark Industries. The job is yours if you want it."

Stephanie was stunned. "Are…Are you sure? You barely know anything about me, and you're offering me a job."

"You were born on November 22nd, 1985, which makes you twenty-seven years old; you're Canadian, but you've been living in New York for the past seven years working for Pyper Industries, which makes you a genius for getting a PhD at twenty years-old; you're fluent in three languages: English, French, and Italian; you have an older brother, but both of your parents died; you eat a disturbing amount of Pad Thai; and your musical tastes aren't bad, but you need more classic rock on your iPod," Tony took a breath after he had finished listing things about her.

"I'm slightly impressed that you got all of that from going through my bag." Truthfully, she wasn't fond of him knowing all of this about her, but she reasoned that it was only fair since she already knew personal information about him and Pepper thanks to the Iron Man and the Avengers movies.

"Only slightly?" Tony pretended to be hurt.

"It's not that hard to elaborate an idea of someone's life based on receipts, a USB stick, personal notes, ID cards, and an old family photograph," Stephanie shrugged, thankful that she didn't keep a certain ring in her bag. "But you're wrong about one thing. I _had _a brother. He died three years ago."

"Oh…"

"Atticus worked with me at Pyper Industries until he died in a lab explosion. They, um, say that he burned to death. It didn't take long; the heat levels in the lab were incredibly high, turned his body into ash." She explained, her eyes beginning to water a little. She did, however, leave out details about the experiment that her brother was conducting on the day of the explosion, that she was the one who should have been working in the lab that day, and that another man died that day as well.

"Your brother's name was Atticus?" Tony asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, and his middle name was Heathcliff," Stephanie slightly smiled. "My father was an English literature professor. I'm just thankful that my mom talked him out of naming me Bathsheba."

Tony grinned. "So, what do you say about the job?"

She hesitated for a second.

"Yes, I accept. Thank you."

"Good. You'll have to live in Stark Tower seeing as you don't exist in any government records. I'll see what Pepper can do about getting you some clothes." He said, gesturing to her pajamas.

"You know, for a billionaire-genius-playboy-philanthropist, your company has a strict dress code."

**Two months later.**

"Hey! Berlin! Get up!" Tony shouted.

Tony had taken a penchant for calling her by her last name soon after she started working for him. Stephanie thought it might have to do with how close they'd become; Tony was almost like a stand-in for Atticus, albeit a more sarcastic version of her older brother.

After her first week with Tony and Pepper, Stephanie had conducted medical tests on herself in order to examine if she was affected in any way by stepping into an alternate dimension. So far she'd found nothing; all of her blood samples and DNA appeared normal, so she focused her attention on her work at Stark Industries instead.

During her first month at Stark Industries, she had created a serum that counteracted the process that the Grey Gargoyle used to turn people into stone. After that was done, Tony had asked her to start creating and testing ways to improve his prototype for green energy. She still continued to work on her device, Oryx, but it wasn't an immediate concern anymore -she was happy here.

"No. Sleep. Go away, Tony." Stephanie sleepily muttered while weakly throwing a pillow in his general direction. The glowing red numbers on her clock read 3:23am.

"It's important!" Tony turned on one of the lights in her room.

"Lies." She pulled a pillow over her head. He woke her up one time at two am to ask if it was tacky that his socks matched his tie.

"How much do you know about gamma radiation?"

Stephanie's ears perked up. "Gamma radiation? I…I'm pretty familiar with it."

"Good. I need you to look this over." He tossed a couple large folders onto the bed and brought up some screens with the different Avengers' profiles.

Stephanie sat up. The word 'Tesseract' instantly caught her eye on one of the files. She had a feeling that the Avengers movie's story arc was beginning.

"Make sure you read everything by this afternoon. I'm sending you as my substitute to S.H.I.E.L.D. for a consultation about the Tesseract. You're leaving at 2pm."

"Why aren't you -Oh, it's your anniversary with Pepper isn't it?"

"Yes, and I need to be here to fully enjoy it. I'll join you after Pepper leaves for D.C."

"Guess I better start reading then…Hey! Tony!" She called as he was beginning to leave her room.

"Yeah?"

"Does Fury know that I'm going tomorrow instead of you?"

"Not exa-" A pillow had hit him square in the jaw before he could finish. Tony darted out of the room before Stephanie had a chance to throw another pillow at him.

She looked up at the profiles of the Avengers that were now on display around her bed. One of the cool things about living in Tony's building was how you could bring up computer information anywhere.

Up until this point, it never really hit her that she'd get to meet the Avengers. The _real _Avengers. Just as suddenly as this thought came to her, so did _another. _'_I hope they like me_'.

Nearly four hours later, Stephanie had finished reading everything that Tony had given her and some of Bruce Banner's scientific articles –it was strange to view him as a real scientist, a real _person_, instead of a comic book character. She glanced over his file one more time before deciding to get some sleep before she had to leave.

"Oh, what have I gotten myself into?"She wondered aloud as she fell back on the bed.


	4. The Scientist

**Chapter 4. The Scientist **

"With all due respect Director Fury, you are an idiot!" was the first thing that Natasha, Bruce, and Steve heard while they entered the bridge of the S.H.I.E.L.D. aircraft. Ahead of them was the intimidating figure of Nick Fury, his face towards them, glaring at a woman with dark brown hair to the middle of her back.

"Look, I don't know who Stark thinks he is, but he can't send his assistant and expect-"

"I am _not _his assistant. I'm the head of the scientific research division at Stark Industries!" Stephanie clenched her fists.

Natasha, Steve, and Bruce silently watched the argument between Fury and the unknown woman continue.

"Look, the way that you're going, you'll find the Tesseract in ten years!" She continued her harangue. "What you need to do is to use spectrographs to trace gamma rays. It won't give the exact location of the Tesseract, but it will narrow down your search!"

"She's right." Bruce agreed.

"Finally, someone with a little common sense!" Stephanie turned and came face-to-face with Bruce Banner who had been standing right behind her. She thought that he looked even better in person. Her eyes widened in surprise. She had expected to see him, but not just yet. Glancing past him, she also saw Natasha and Steve.

"I can create a program to trace the findings of the spectrographs." Bruce told Fury. Hesitating for a second he asked, "How long will I be here?"

"You're free to leave after the Tesseract is found." Fury told Bruce who looked relieved. "Agent Romanoff, take Dr. Banner and Stark's monkey to the lab." Fury ordered.

"Hey!" Stephanie exclaimed. "I resent that."

"You'll love it; we've got all the toys." Natasha said to Bruce and Stephanie as she started leading them towards the laboratory.

Turning her head for one last glance of the room, Stephanie saw Steve give Fury ten dollars. She smiled remembering the scene where they made the bet in the movie.

The walk to the lab was spent mostly in silence. She glanced at Bruce a couple of times, hoping that she wouldn't be like how Phil was with Steve. Examining his file was one thing, but seeing him in the flesh, walking slightly in front of her, was completely different.

Natasha left them alone the moment that they reached the lab; she seemed wary of Bruce, perhaps even a little scared. It seemed that everyone did. Stephanie had noticed a few apprehensive glances at Bruce while they were walking towards the lab. Obviously him being the Hulk wasn't a secret around here.

Scanning the room, Stephanie noticed that the lab was smaller than Tony's, but that it had all of the high-tech equipment that they would need.

"I don't think we've been introduced. I'm Bruce. Bruce Banner." He held out his hand.

"Stephanie Berlin." She replied shaking his hand, hoping that she didn't reveal how attractive she thought he looked in his purple shirt. She could have sworn that she felt a little shock when their hands touched. '_Okay, you're thinking like a thirteen year-old with a crush or Phil Coulson when he is in the presence of Captain America. It was probably just a static shock…Oh god, his brown eyes! Puppies do not have eyes as cute as this man. Stop it. __**Stop it**__.' _

"So, you're the expert on gamma radiation that I've heard about." She asked him, trying to ignore the billions of her brain cells that were gushing over Bruce's adorable eyes.

"What else have you heard about me?" Bruce asked, trying to see if she knew that he was the Hulk. He noticed that Stephanie didn't seem nervous about upsetting him; everyone else tended to walk on eggshells around him if they knew about his…condition.

"Oh, you know, the usual. You have a PhD in nuclear physics, people have called you the next Stephen Hawking." Bruce breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, and that you turned into an enormous green rage monster and destroyed Harlem."

"I haven't done that for a while." Bruce looked a little ashamed.

"It's not a big deal. Besides, once a month nearly all women turn into enormous rage monsters. And trust me, they can do a lot worse than just destroying Harlem." She smiled at him and he returned her smile.


	5. Punching Bag

**Hi, everyone! I just want to thank you all for your reviews! Also, although it seemed as if the Avengers were only on S.H.I.E.L.D's awesome ship/plane thing for a day in the movie, I changed it to two days. ****Enjoy!**

**Chapter 5. Punching Bag**

"The program seems to be running smoothly, we just have to wait until it picks up a signal." Stephanie told Bruce while she was letting her hair down from the ponytail that she had put it in when they began working. "So, feel like getting dinner?"

Bruce took off his glasses and took one last look at the computer screen, to make it seem as if he had been working, before answering. "Sure."

For the past hour he had spent the majority of his time covertly glancing at Stephanie instead of doing anything productive. He could list what she was wearing down to the last detail (dark grey skinny cargo pants, a dark purple t-shirt, high-top all black converse shoes, and a small circle of jade on a silver chain), that she had light green eyes, that she was right-handed, and that she unconsciously tapped her fingers when she was concentrating on something.

It was foreign for him to have someone who knew about his condition and spoke to him as if he were normal, instead of treating him as a ticking time bomb. It felt…nice. He smiled at the thought of having some one-on-one time with her at dinner. After their introductions, they had spent most of their time working instead of talking; he wanted to get to know this woman better.

"So, do you know where the cafeteria on this thing is?" she asked Bruce once they were in the hallway outside of the lab.

"I thought you knew."

"I was too busy yelling at Fury once I stepped on the aircraft to get a map." She joked. "Oh, hey, there's Steve. Let's ask him."

Bruce sighed. _'There goes my chance to get to know her better_.'

"Hi, Captain!" Stephanie greeted as Steve approached them.

"Hello, Miss, Dr. Banner."

"Oh, that's right. We haven't been properly introduced yet." She stuck her hand out. "I'm Stephanie Berlin."

"Steve Rogers." He clasped her hand with his. His grip was firm, but thankfully none of the bones in her hand were crushed -she thought that this would have been inevitable considering that the size of his muscles were almost the size of her head. "Nice to meet you, Miss. Berlin."

"Likewise." She flashed him a smile. "So, Steve, do you know where the cafeteria is?"

He nodded. "I was just heading there. It'd be my pleasure for you two to join me."

"That would be lovely." Stephanie replied, taking the arm that Steve had offered. Stephanie smiled; it was cute to see his old-fashioned manners in person instead of a movie theatre.

Along the way, Steve pointed out other areas on the aircraft that might be useful: washrooms, the gym, where everyone's rooms were.

Bruce had remained silent, and tagged along behind them. He was still slightly disappointed that Steve would be joining them, although he was reluctant to admit to himself why this bothered him.

The cafeteria was huge; it needed to be in order to serve food to everyone on board of the aircraft. Dozens of tables were organized in rows across the room that seemed to be at least one football field long. Different stations were set up at one end of the hall, opposite the tables, where people could order different types of food.

Once they had chosen their food, Bruce, Stephanie, and Steve sat down at an unoccupied table that was a little secluded from the others.

"So, Steve this all must seem a little familiar and all. I mean, the military aspect of this at least." Stephanie nodded to a table where a group of uniformed men where laughing.

"Yes," Steve smiled. "But a lot has changed…"

"I can imagine; it's almost as if you woke up in a new world…" Stephanie remarked, realizing how similar her and Steve's situations were. Both of them were in a similar, yet different world; she felt a kind of kinship with him because of this.

"So, Steve did you spend the day exploring the ship?" Bruce asked in hopes of breaking Steve and Stephanie's prolonged glaze at each other.

Steve broke his stare at Stephanie and turned his face to Bruce. "A little. I spent most of my time in the gym."

"You're the woman who yelled at Fury. You work for Stark, right?" a woman's voice interrupted their conversation.

Looking up, Stephanie saw Natasha standing in front of their table. Natasha slid into a seat next to Steve who was sitting across from Stephanie.

"Is that how I'll be known from now on, the woman who yelled at Fury and survived?" She glanced at Bruce and Steve who both nodded. "Yes, I work for Tony."

"How long have you worked for him?" Natasha asked.

"A couple of months." She was being vague on purpose -she didn't want anyone to further investigate how she ended up meeting Tony, especially a Russian spy. "Why?"

"I'm surprised that anyone could work with his ego for longer than a week."

"Working at Stark Tower helps; there's more room for his ego there."

Natasha smirked at Stephanie's remark, while Bruce and Steve smiled. It seemed that Tony's reputation of being volatile, self-obsessed, and not playing well with others was known among the Avengers.

"How are you coming along with locating the Tesseract?" Steve inquired.

"We're getting there." Bruce answered with a sigh. He was looking forward to leaving S.H.I.E.L.D.

"It's just a matter of waiting." Stephanie added. Although she knew that Loki would eventually end up at Stark Tower, she couldn't tell anyone. It would be suspicious, to say the least, if she told them where Dr. Selvig would appear before he actually went there. She sighed; living in an alternate dimension was complicated.

That night, Stephanie couldn't fall asleep. She twisted in her bed until the sheets wrapped around her legs in a way that would rival the difficulty of solving a Rubix cube or getting out of a Chinese finger trap. The events of the day played over and over in her mind: her argument with Fury, working with Bruce in the lab all day, dinner.

Sighing, she untangled herself from her sheets and walked over to her messenger bag. She pulled out her well-worn copy of _Frankenstein_, hoping that reading would set her mind at ease. Sadly, reading provided no relief. Her mind kept returning to her predicament instead of focusing on the story. She would be reading a sentence and then her mind would suddenly start thinking about Bruce. Was he asleep right now? What is he dreaming about if he's asleep? What did he think of her?

The clock beside her read 1:57am.

"Ugh, just go to sleep!" She moaned, hating how her brain wouldn't let go of Bruce Banner.

She glanced at the clock again, it's glowing numbers read 1:58am…1:58am…_Why is time moving so slowly? It'll be 1:59am now…_1:58am…_Okay, now…_1:58am…_Now?_...

After twenty minutes of glancing at the clock, she decided to go for a walk since she obviously couldn't sleep. Stepping out of her door, Stephanie glanced around the hall. It was empty; she assumed that everyone was either at the bridge or in bed. She passed by Bruce's room, but didn't see any light under the door or hear him moving. She frowned and kept on walking. She wandered along her floor for a while long until she heard a faint sound. She followed it, and it led her to the gym. Pushing open the door, she saw Steve in a white t-shirt and sweats, drenched in sweat, beating up a punching bag.

"Do you live in the gym, Steve?" she called out to him, smiling.

He turned to her, his eyes lighting up when he realized who called out to him, but made no reply to answer.

"Sorry if I bothered you. I couldn't sleep, so I decided to take a walk and ended up here."

"You're not bothering me. How come you can't sleep?" Steve sat down on a bench and motioned for Stephanie to join him.

She sat down and shrugged. "It's been an…exciting day. I think my brain is just working through everything."

"I can understand that."

"So, how come you're up? Does it have anything to do with the fact that you've been asleep for the past seventy years?"

"I've had enough sleep for a lifetime."

"You should start exploring the world then, Captain."

"I'm not sure that I want to." He sighed.

Stephanie wanted to ask him about how he adapted to waking up in the future, but decided against it. If he wanted to talk about it, he would.

"I get that. It's like you recognize things, but they're not quite the same. Or some things are just so different that it amazes you and you're left wondering if you can ever get used to it…if you can adapt...You think that you might never feel completely comfortable or familiar with your surroundings. You don't think that you can ever go back to how it was before…" She was speaking more of her experience than his. Would she ever be able to go home again? Did she want to?

"You seem to know how it feels." Steve gave her an appreciative glance.

"Well, you know…" She shrugged. "Hey, why don't you teach me how to box?" She needed to get off of the topic before he either asked about her past, or she let it slip. She didn't want the Avengers to know about the whole travelling across dimensions thing yet (or maybe ever).

"Teach you to box? I'm not sure-"

"C'mon; it'll be fun! Plus, it might get rid of all of the excess energy that I have." She sprang up off of the bench and towards the punching bag.

"All right. But we're going to start off with the basics. Here, put these on." Steve tossed her a pair of red sparring gloves, and then started to wrap his hands with cloth. "Okay, so we'll start off with your stance. You need to stand like this." Steve posed in the stance with his feet shoulder width apart, his hands up, and his left foot in front of his right foot."

"Like this?"

"Almost. You just need to raise your hands a little more." Steve touched Stephanie's arm to show her how much to raise it. She tensed up at first, but quickly relaxed. The fact that his hand had lingered on her arm hadn't escaped her notice.

"Perfect. Now it's time to learn how to jab; it's the most important type of punch. It's like this. " Steve demonstrated. "You have to make sure to twist your arm in a corkscrew motion before impact."

Over the next hour, Stephanie perfected jabs, and Steve taught her other basic punches: hooks, straight right punches, and uppercuts.

"Thanks," Stephanie said panting while taking off the boxing gloves. "I needed that."

"Anytime." Steve smiled.

"I guess I better try and get some sleep. I'll see you tomorrow. Good night, Steve!"

"Good night, Stephanie."

She didn't notice how Steve's eyes had lingered on her as she left.


	6. En Francais

**Hi! I want to thank all of you for your reviews and stuff. I've been away from home for a while, so I haven't had much time to write. Here's a short chapter to tie you over!**

**Edit: Just wanted to add that the song I mentioned in this chapter is Au bar des suicidés by Pierre Lapointe if anyone is curious. **

**Chapter 6. En Francais**

That morning, Bruce was walking towards the cafeteria for breakfast. He had taken the route that would cause him to pass directly by Stephanie's room. He wanted to see if she wanted to grab some breakfast with him before they had to go to the lab, or if his courage to ask her diminished once he was there, he hoped that he would run into her "accidentally" on his way there.

When Bruce had made it to her room, he hesitated before knocking. His breathing quickened, and he took a deep breath before knocking. He knocked three times, but there was no answer. To his disappointment, he continued to the cafeteria alone.

"She's probably with Steve." Bruce grumbled under his breath as he walked toward the cafeteria.

After a quick breakfast, during which he didn't see Steve either, Bruce went to the lab. He saw Stephanie working at a computer. Her back was towards him, leaving her oblivious to him being there. Music was coming from an iPod on one of the desks in the middle of the room; it wasn't incredibly loud, but its sound masked any noise that Bruce had made when entering the room. Another sound, the sound of Stephanie singing along to the music, also blinded her to the fact that Bruce was currently in the lab and watching her with his arms crossed over his chest and a bemused smile upon his face.

"…Et si je meurs là-bas / Eh bien, tant pis pour moi / Je n'avais qu'à savoir /Qu'on ne rit pas de ces choses-là / Si mon cœur se débat / Ne t'en fais pas pour moi /J'ai gardé un sourire en souvenir de toi."

Once the song had stopped, Stephanie turned around and discovered Bruce.

"AH! What the hell, Bruce! You scared me!...Not cool."

"You're a good singer." He smiled as he brushed some of his wavy hair off of his face.

"You weren't suppose to see...hear…that." Her cheeks turned a shade of crimson. She hastily unplugged her iPod. "I thought I was alone."

"How long have you known French?" Bruce asked, inwardly happy that he could find out a little more about her.

"The more important question is how long have you been standing there?"

"I caught the last verse."

Stephanie sighed in relief -so he hadn't caught her dancing along to her favourite part of the song.

"My mom is French, so I grew up speaking it."

"Could you translate the lyrics for me? My French is a little rusty."

Stephanie touched the back of her neck before answering. Her cheeks still showed a faint blush.

"'And if I die there / Well, too bad for me / I had to know / That one doesn't laugh at these things / If my heart breaks / Don't worry about me / I kept a smile in memory of you'"

Bruce opened his mouth to say something, but Stephanie cut him off, trying to change the topic. "I made some changes to the tracing program to make it more efficient."

"How long have you been here?"

"Uhm, a few hours. I couldn't really sleep, so I decided to get some work done instead of trying to sleep in...Oh! I wanted to get your opinion on one of the changes I made..."

"Bruce?"

"…Yeah?"

"What do you think?"

He had been too busy focusing on the fact that she hadn't been with Steve this morning instead of listening to what she had said. "Uh, yeah that's fine."

"Did you hear what I just said?"

"Yes, of course." He lied.

"Oh, okay," She nodded. "Then you must have known that you just agreed to go out on a date with Fury." She flashed a smile at his look of pure horror. "I figured you weren't listening, and I wanted to test my hypothesis."

"Uh, I..." All of Bruce's brain cells were scurrying to find words to form an excuse as to why he wasn't listening.

"Don't worry! You don't have to go out with Fury. I bet he isn't your type anyways. I mean, he wears an eye patch. He wears an eye patch and it's not even Halloween. What's up with that?" She flashed him a smile.

"He's not my type, but there's someone else who I'd like to take out to dinner.." Bruce began after recovering his senses.

Before Bruce could say anything else, Stephanie's attention was caught by something occuring outside of the lab. A man, who Stephanie recognized as Loki, was being escorted by numerous guards. His piercing green eyes stared at both them, sending chills down Stephanie's spine. It didn't seem like this in the movie -it didn't seem this unsettling. Stephanie had no doubts that this man was really Loki, not just Tom Hiddleston acting. It wasn't possible for a man to have so much pain and resentment in his eyes unless it was real.

For the first time since she ended up in this dimension, she felt scared. She realized that her safety was in danger. The reality of her situation hit her; she was in a world in which the bad guys actually had super powers or were aliens. She was just a normal person, but, in a few hours, the world she was in was going to be attacked by an alien army led by a demi-god. She was helpless. She shuddered at her realization.

Bruce saw Stephanie shudder and unconsciously take a step back from the door. He reached out and put his hand on her arm.

"Are you all right?" he asked her, concern evident in his voice.

"Y-yeah. Fine." She pulled away from the hand that was touching her arm, not noticing the hurt look that flickered on Bruce's face. "W-We should get to the bridge. I'm sure Fury will want to brief us."

Before Bruce had time to respond, Stephanie was already out of the lab and walking to the bridge. He ran a hand through his hair and sighed before following her.


	7. Pointy Things

**I had some time to write today, so here's the next chapter. This chapter contains some of the dialogue used in the movie, so obviously, that's not mine. Enjoy!**

**Chapter 7. Pointy Things**

As soon as Stephanie reached the bridge, she sat down at the chair which was at the end of the table where Natasha was also sitting. Thor opted to stand next to the table which gave Stephanie the chance to see just how huge he was -he looked to her as if he had the strength to move a truck with only his pinky.

Bruce glanced around at the activity which was currently going on at the bridge; people seemed to be in a state of excitement. He moved to go sit in the free chair beside Stephanie, but Steve rushed passed him and claimed the chair for himself. Bruce resigned himself to standing a little behind the pair with the intent of overhearing their conversation, in hopes of finding out how Stephanie felt about Steve.

Before anyone could speak, display screens around the bridge lit up showing Fury talking with Loki. During Loki's speech, Stephanie glanced at Bruce. He seemed upset about Loki's comment that was directed towards him, but he was hard to read sometimes. 'Hell, Stephanie thought, I'd be pretty upset if someone called me a mindless beast'.

"He really grows on you, doesn't he?" Bruce remarked to everyone once Loki had finished talking and the display screens went black.

"So, how are you?" Steve asked Stephanie, ignoring the whole demi-god in confinement situation for the moment and focusing on the woman sitting beside him.

"Oh, uhm fine. A little sore from last night still, though."

"Berlin, you've been on this aircraft for a day and you already slept with Capsicle. I thought I told you not to do anything that I wouldn't do." Tony's voice bellowed from the doorway. Agent Coulson was standing next to him.

"First of all, you never said that. Secondly, I didn't sleep with Steve. And really? You would have slept with half of the women on the bridge already if you weren't with Pepper." Stephanie scoffed.

"Sex, yes. Sex with someone who wears a spangly outfit, no." Tony countered.

"No sex happened last night!" Stephanie protested to Bruce's delight. "Steve was teaching me to box."

"Well if that's what you kids call it these days-"

Everyone on the bridge was watching the conversation between Tony and Stephanie unfold. They argued like brother and sister -they knew what to say to upset one another, but it was obvious that they cared for each other.

"I can't believe you would imply anything like that!" Steve angrily said at Tony, looking as if he'd like to snap Tony's head off.

"Ooooh the ninety year-old virgin is scolding me." Tony pretended to look scared while he walked towards the display screens.

"I didn't know that this was a competition of how many people you've slept with. What's the prize, syphilis?" Stephanie dryly asked. "Anyways," she continued before Tony had a chance to say anything else. "We should be focusing on what Loki is planning on doing next."

'As if I don't already know.' She thought to herself, but she kept quiet as the discussion unfolded just as it had in the movie.

"Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?" Steve asked.

"He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard nor any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the Earth, in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract,".

"An army, from outer space?" Steve looked a little surprised.

Stephanie was thankful that she wasn't the only on one the ship who didn't think that an alien army attacking earth was a normal everyday occurrence.

"So, he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for." Bruce said.

"And now that he has Iridium, he can make the portal as large as he wants and keep it open for as long as he wants. Perfect for getting an alien army to earth." Stephanie spoke up, a little eager to show off what she knew to the Avengers. Despite hearing about Iridium in the movie, she did actually know about what it could do. She was a physicist after all, and had used Iridium when building Oryx.

"How does Fury even see these?" Tony changed the topic for a moment. He was standing at the command center of the ship, awkwardly looking at display screens.

"He turns." Hill answered. She obviously looked annoyed at Tony. Most of the bridge looked annoyed at Tony being there to be honest, Stephanie noted.

"Sounds exhausting. The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source of high energy density. Something to kick-start the Cube." Tony remarked.

"When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?" Hill asked.

"Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the extraction theory papers -am I the only one who did the reading?"

"Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?" Steve asked.

"He's have to heat the Cube to a hundred and twenty million kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier." Bruce pointed out.

"I'm sure that Selvig figured out how to stabilize the Quantum Tunneling effect, though." Stephanie pointed out, stealing the information that Tony was going to say in his next line.

"Well, if he could do that he could achieve heavy-ion fusion at any reactor on the planet." Bruce didn't look pleased at they couldn't narrow down Selvig's whereabouts.

"Finally! Someone who speaks English." Tony walked over to Bruce.

"Is that what just happened?" Steve asked looking at Stephanie. She shrugged in reply, turning her head to look at Tony and Bruce. Tony seemed to be about an inch taller than Bruce.

"It's good to meet you, Doctor Banner." Tony shook Bruce's hand. "Your work on anti-electronic collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster."

" ...Thanks."

"Ignore him." Stephanie advised Bruce.

"Doctor Banner is only here to track the Cube. I was hoping you might join him."

Stephanie jumped at Fury's voice; she hadn't seen him step onto the bridge.

"I'd start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon." Steve suggested.

"I don't know about that, but it is powered by the Cube. And I like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys." Fury said.

"Monkeys? I do not understand-"

"I do! I- I understood that reference." Steve cut off Thor, eager to show that he wasn't completely out of the loop. Stephanie felt a little sad for him, not knowing a lot of pop culture references. She decided that, once they had free time, she'd show him some of the main things that he should know about.

"Shall we play, Doctor?" Tony asked Bruce. "C'mon, Berlin. We're going to do science." he added as he and Bruce started to make their way to the lab.

"I guess I better go back to the lab. See you later!" Stephanie told Steve before taking off after Tony and Bruce.

* * *

Stephanie entered the lab just as Tony was telling Bruce to come by Stark Tower.

"You'd love it, it's a candy land. Right, Berlin?"

She nodded. "Tony does have all the cool toys."

"Thanks, but last time I was in New York I kind-of broke Harlem."

"Well, I promise a stress free environment. No tension, no surprises." Tony said before he poked Bruce in the side with a mental instrument.

"Ow!"

"Hey!" Steve, who had just come into the lab, yelled at Tony. "Are you nuts?"

"Jury's out." Tony answered Steve's rhetorical question before turning to Bruce. "You really have got a lid on it, haven't you? What's your secret? Mellow jazz, bongo drums, huge bag of weed?"

Stephanie let out a giggle and all three of them turned towards her.

"I-I was just picturing Bruce playing the bongo drums." She giggled again.

"Here, you dropped this on the bridge." Steve handed Stephanie a pen that must have fallen out of her pocket before turning towards Tony. "Threatening the safety of everyone on this ship isn't funny...No offense, Doc"

"No, uh, it's alright. I wouldn't have come aboard if I couldn't handle pointy things."

"But can you handle Tony?" Stephanie joked while looking at Bruce with her green eyes which seemed to be smiling. "I'm pretty sure that he would make Ghandi lose it within five minutes."

Bruce smiled at her, glad that she had some confidence in him and his ability to keep 'The Other Guy' under control.

"Hey! I met Ghandi before." Tony responded to Stephanie's remark. "And it only took three minutes." Tony then poked Stephanie in the side with the same metal instrument that he had used on Bruce.

"Ow! Hey!"

"You need to focus on the problem, Mr. Stark." Steve told Tony.

"You think I'm not? Why did Fury call us in? Why now, why not before? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables."

"You think Fury's hiding something?"

"He's a spy. Captain, he's _the_ spy. His secrets have secrets. It's bothering them, too." Tony gestured to Stephanie and Bruce.

"Aah, I just wanna finish my work here and-"

"Stephanie?" Steve asked, looking towards her. He felt as if he could trust her and that she would tell him the truth.

"I agree with Tony." Stephanie answered. She'd seen the movie, so she already knew about Phase 2 without Tony having to hack into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s computer system or Steve rummaging through a storage room on the ship. "It's kind of weird that S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't bring Tony in on the Tesseract, you know since he's basically the only name in clean energy right now. I mean, why would S.H.I.E.L.D. even focus on green energy at all."

Both Tony and Bruce nodded in agreement. Stephanie was enjoying herself; knowing what came next and how everyone react was kind of fun.

"I should probably look into that as soon as my decryption programme finishes breaking into all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secure files." Tony commented.

"I'm sorry did you say-?"

"Tony's been running a computer program to hack into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s database ever since he was on board." Stephanie cut-in. "Oh, don't think I didn't catch you putting the bug onto one of the computers." She added when she saw Tony look at her with slightly wide eyes, showing his surprise.

"You let him do that?" Steve asked, looking kind of upset and hurt.

She shrugged. "He'd find another way to do it if I tried. Besides, aren't you curious?"

"We have orders, we should follow them."

"Following's not really my style." Tony remarked.

"And you're all about style, aren't you?" Steve said, almost sneering at Tony.

"Out of the people in this room, which one is a) wearing a spangley outfit and b) not of use?" Tony shot-back at Steve.

"Hey, Lite-Brite. Not cool." Stephanie frowned at Tony. Steve had been frozen for over thirty-years, he didn't deserve to be the target of Tony's snarky remarks.

"Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?" Bruce spoke.

"Just find the Cube." Steve said looking pissed off. "I'll see you later, Stephanie." he added, his anger softening when he turned to give her a slight wave before exiting the lab.

"Seriously. Tony. You might want to be a little nicer to him. He's on _your _side." Stephanie advised Tony once Steve had left.

"You know I don't play well with others, especially bossy super soldiers who wear spangly outfits." He replied before throwing a blueberry at her head.


	8. Blueberries

**I seem to be on a roll with writing which means another chapter for all of you. Enjoy!**

**Chapter 8. Blueberries**

It took three hours and a bag of blueberries being thrown at her by Tony before Stephanie decided to take a break and go get coffee.

"Do you want anything?" Stephanie looked at Bruce before leaving.

"No." Tony, who was examining Loki's scepter, answered without looking up.

"I wasn't asking you. You threw blueberries at me -those better be cleaned up by the time I get back." She motioned to the pile of blueberries surrounding the table that she was working on.

"Sorry, mom."

Stephanie rolled her eyes. For a genius-playboy-billionaire-philanthropist, Tony could certainly act like a toddler sometimes; this was definitely one of his "man-child" moments.

"Bruce, would you like anything?"

"Oh, uh, no. I'm fine." He looked up from a computer screen, pushing his glasses up. "Thanks."

"All right. I'll be back in a little. Try not to piss off Fury too much, Tony."

"I'm not the one who called him an idiot." Tony replied, not bothering to look up from his work.

"Not to his face...But, seriously. Does _everyone _know about that? You weren't even on board when it happened!" Stephanie questioned, but neither Bruce nor Tony answered. She sighed and went to the cafeteria.

When Stephanie returned to the lab, Tony was giving Bruce his little "pep talk" about embracing the Hulk. She stood in the doorway for a little, watching the two interact. To her, it looked like Bruce admired Tony, almost wanted to be a little like Tony.

"...It's part of me now, not just armour. It's a terrible privilege." Tony said.

"But you can control it."

"Because I learned how."

"It's different."

"No, it's the same. What do you think, Berlin?" Tony had finally noticed her standing in the doorway with a cup of mediocre cafeteria coffee in her left hand.

Bruce stared at her, curious about what she would say.

Stephanie bit her lip, hesitating before she responded. She knew a little about the Hulk from the movies and tidbits of information that she remembered her brother telling her -she was just afraid that Bruce would become suspicious of her if she let something slip that she shouldn't have known.

"The Hulk...The Other Guy is part of you, Bruce. Just like how the arc reactor is part of Tony. I think that the Hu...The Other Guy is a larger part of you than you care to admit; he isn't only there when you're angry, but also when you're vulnerable...like now, having this conversation." She remembered that, in the movie, Bruce's reflection on a screen was that of the Hulk in this scene. Stephanie paused before continuing. "Tony learned to control what happened to him, and I think that you'll be able to as well. With great power comes great responsibility."

'_Shit_,' Stephanie thought, '_that last part was from Spider-Man. I hope they don't notice..._'

Tony nodded, showing his agreement with her. "I read all about your accident. That much Gamma exposure should've killed you."

"So you're saying that the Hulk, the Other Guy, saved my life? That's nice. That's a nice sentiment. Saved it for what?" Bruce questioned a little bitterly. He looked a little miserable; Stephanie just wanted to hug him, but instead, remained silent and where she was.

"I guess we'll find out."

"You may not enjoy that."

"And you just might." Tony said before beginning to work again.

"So...Did you two, uhm, get a lot of work done while I was gone?" Stephanie asked Bruce after waiting a few moments after Tony spoke, allowing his words to sink in.

"A little. We're still examining Loki's scepter -its frequency is consistent with gamma rays. I could use your opinion on something, though." Bruce answered.

Stephanie walked over to Bruce, but slipped on some blueberries that Tony had thrown at her. She would have had a painful fall if Bruce hadn't caught her just in time.

"...T-thanks." Stephanie whispered, looking up at Bruce who was still holding her. Her heart was still beating a little faster than normal -she thought that this had more to do with being in Bruce's arms than her surprise at slipping.

"N-no problem."

Bruce was still holding Stephanie in his arms The two of them stared at one another, neither wanting to move. Finally, Tony broke their prolonged gaze into each other's eyes.

"No sex allowed in the lab."

"What? We...I..." Stephanie stumbled over her words, but finally pulled herself from Bruce's hold.

"All right, fine. Have sex in the lab, but make sure to do it on a table that I'm not using." Tony smirked, adding, "I noticed that you held on to her for a long time, Bruce."

"I-I was just recovering from the shock of slipping on your stupid blueberries and almost breaking my neck." Stephanie protested.

Bruce had remained silent, thinking about how it felt to hold Stephanie. Shivers ran throughout his body. He knew that tonight his dreams would involve what Tony suggested.

Tony's smirk grew wider at their slightly red cheeks.

"Just clean up the freaking blueberries." Stephanie grumbled at Tony before focusing on lab work.


	9. Rag Dolls

**Again, I used some of the original dialogue from the movie so I don't own that. Enjoy, and thanks to everyone for their support!**

**Chapter 9. Rag Dolls**

The next hour was filled with Bruce and Stephanie staring awkwardly at one another. Each of them had enjoyed the embrace, but neither of them wanted to admit it. Bruce had The Other Guy to worry about and Stephanie was too busy worrying if her being in this dimension would alter events, perhaps even allow Loki to win against the Avengers.

Stephanie and Bruce had been pretending that they weren't glancing at one another when Fury walked into the lab. Stephanie didn't have to look up in order to tell that he was angry.

"You're suppose to be locating the Tesseract." Fury bellowed at Tony who was fiddling with something on a computer screen. It was clear that he had discovered that Tony had hacked into S.H.I.E.L.D.'s files.

"We are; the model's locked and we're sweeping for the signature now. When we get a hit, we'll have the location within half a mile." Bruce told him, bringing up the tracking program on a computer screen.

"And you'll get your cube back. No muss, no fuss. What is Phase Two?" Tony asked despite already knowing the answer.

Steve walked into the lab with a metal case before Fury could answer, or evade, Tony's question.

Steve slammed the case on the table. "Phase Two is S.H.I.E.L.D. used the cube to make weapons."To Tony he added, "Sorry, the computer was moving a little slow for me."

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're-" Fury was trying to backpedal his way out of this.

Tony turned a computer screen, showing everyone in a lab an outline for a nuclear weapon.

"I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit." Steve said sullenly.

Stephanie went to stand near Steve and touched his arm to comfort him when Thor and Natasha entered. Natasha glanced nervously at Bruce.

"Did you know about this?" Bruce asked both of them while gesturing to the screen.

"You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" Natasha directed towards Bruce.

"I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed."

"Loki's manipulating you."

"And you've been doing what exactly?"

The tension was rising in the room. Stephanie remained silent, unsure what to do. She had a nagging feeling that something was going to happen soon. She just couldn't remember what. Steve put an arm around her waist, interrupting her thoughts.

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you."

"Yes, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy. I'd like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction."

"Because of him." Fury pointed to Thor, interrupting the dispute going on between Bruce and Natasha.

"Me?" Thor looked surprised.

_The explosion! _Stephanie remembered._ I think it happens right after Bruce revealed that he tried to kill himself, right?...Or did it happened a little after that? Ugh, why did I see the movie only once?_

"Last year earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, out-gunned." Fury explained.

"My people want nothing but peace with your planet." Thor defended.

_...Bruce mentions his suicide and then what? Okay. Think...Think...Thiiiink._

"But you're not the only people out there, are you? And, you're not the only threat. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, they can't be controlled."

"Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is the signal to all the realms that the earth is ready for a higher form of war." Thor told Fury.

_Okay, _She sighed. _The last thing that I remember happening before the explosion is Bruce talking about his suicide, but I think that something else happened before the explosion. So, I guess I'll wait until Bruce mentions his attempt at suicide and then I'll...What will I do?_

"Right because a nuclear deterrent always calms everything right down." Tony quipped.

"Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?" Fury glared at Tony.

_I can't concentrate on what happened in the movie over everyone's stupid bickering!_

"I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep-" Steve was saying before Tony cut him off.

"Wait! Wait! Hold on! How is this now about me?"

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Steve said.

"Okay! That's it! All of you shut up!" Stephanie shouted, causing everyone in the room to look at her. She needed to think and she needed to do it quickly; it was only a matter of time before the explosion occurred. "All of you are acting like ill-behaved toddlers, and I am sick of it! All of you are suppose to be a team"

Tony opened his mouth to say something, but Stephanie continued her rant, cutting him off. "I know that you think that as a group you're a...a time bomb waiting to go off or something, but put aside your freaking differences and work together! If you only have not wanting Earth to be invaded by an alien army commanded by a demi-god in common then work with that! But this _really _isn't the time to be arguing!"

Everyone was quiet for a few moments, but erupted into arguing a few minutes later -everyone was trying to speak over everyone else. Stephanie heard Steve and Tony threatening to fight each other, and heard Thor call everyone "petty" and "tiny".

She glanced across at Bruce and noticed that his eyes were locked on her...Actually, she realized, his eyes were locked on Steve's arm around her waist. Stephanie saw Bruce's hand touch Loki's scepter. Her eyes widened. Everyone else seemed to have noticed that Bruce was now holding the scepter because they all went quiet. Natasha and Fury reached for their guns which were holstered on their hips.

"Doctor Banner, put down the scepter." Fury ordered.

_Maybe I could just get them to go to Stark Tower and disable the Tesseract with Loki's scepter before the portal opens up..._

A look of surprise appeared on Bruce's face after noticing that he was grasping the scepter.

A beep sounded from the computer signaling that the Tesseract was located.

"The Tesseract is at Stark Tower." Stephanie said. "I think we should all leave the lab and go there now. Like _right_ now."

The explosion was coming. Stephanie thought that she had time, though -Bruce hadn't yet mentioned his attempt at suicide.

"I can get there faster." Tony boasted.

"You're not going alone!" Steve protested.

"You gonna stop me? I'm not afraid to hit an old man."

Fury's eyes lit up as something clicked in his mind. He stared at Stephanie for a few moments. Fury was about to question Stephanie when Steve's voice bellowed throughout the room.

"Put on the suit!"

Apparently Steve had the last word in the argument because seconds after he yelled a large explosion occurred, shattering all of the windows in the lab and causing everyone to be thrown like rag dolls in different directions.


	10. Blood

**Hi! I know it took a while for this new chapter, but I haven't had much time to write these past two weeks. Here's a slightly short chapter to award your patience. Again, thanks for all of the reviews! And, as always, enjoy!**

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**Chapter 10. Blood**

Stephanie's ears were ringing causing her head to throb. At first, she thought her head was throbbing solely due to the explosion, but then realized that an alarm was also sounding. She critically thought it was too loud, but then realized that it had to be, it was an alarm afterall.

Hesitantly, she opened her eyes, only to be met with Steve's blue ones staring back at her. He looked concerned.

"I'm fine. You?" She asked, reading his thoughts.

He nodded at her.

"You need to go somewhere safe." He told her while standing up and helping her off of the floor. Her legs were shaky and her head was still throbbing, but otherwise she was all right.

She realized that he cradled her head when the explosion occurred, and used his body to shield her.

She opened her mouth to thank him before Tony cut her off.

"Berlin. Go to your room. Now."

She looked at them, biting her lip, before nodding. She wouldn't be useful anyways.

"Be careful." She told them.

Steve hesitated, looking as if he wanted to say something. Before he had the chance to speak, Tony pulled him towards, where Stephanie assumed, the malfunctioning engine was.

She glanced around the room, only seeing destruction, before heading towards her room. She assumed that Fury had already left to go to the bridge to bark out orders at everyone.

A deep sound, almost like a roar, came from underneath the floor. A chill ran down her spine before she realized what it was. Bruce…The Hulk.

For a minute, Stephanie contemplated if she should go help Natasha. In the end, she decided against it -she would probably end up the equivalent of a chew toy for the Hulk. Besides she remembered that in the movie Natasha had made it out all right.

As she quickly walked to her room, she noticed that half of the lights were off in the hallway. She tried to think of what happened next in the movie, but her head was pounding and the scene was too chaotic for her to focus. Numerous S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were passing her, heading to the bridge.

At that moment, she realized how lucky she had been. She could have been killed in the explosion. All of this was real. The explosion had made her realize that her life was in danger. She wasn't safe in the lab with Bruce and Tony around anymore. Clint and dozens of soldiers were now trying to seize control of the aircraft and help Loki escape. She shuddered.

She just wanted to crawl under her sheets in her room and not come out until everything was over.

Then she froze.

_Agent Coulson_, she thought, _he's going to die._

She bit her lip, mulling over in her mind all of the pros and cons of trying to save him.

She shook her head, criticizing herself for being selfish. This was a human being. A _real _human being, not an actor. If she didn't at least try to save Agent Coulson…Phil…She knew that she would never forgive herself.

She turned on her heel to the direction of where Loki was being kept.

The faint sound of bullets echoed behind Stephanie as she headed towards Loki's cell.

At one point the floor shook briefly, mirroring a low magnitude earthquake. Her brain mistook it for an actual earthquake until it clicked in her mind that she was thousands of miles above the ground. She then realized what it actually was -fighting occurring on the floors beneath her. The Hulk had probably smashed something. Although the ground shook for only a few seconds, she ended up losing her footing and cut her arm on a piece of dangling metal. Stephanie hissed in pain before carrying on, leaving a small trail of blood behind her.


	11. Guttersnipe

**Hi, everyone! Here is the next chapter. It's longer than the last one! Also, there will be more Bruce soon (I promise)!**

**Thanks again to everyone who reads and/or reviews this. Enjoy!**

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**Chapter 11. Guttersnipe**

As Stephanie approached Loki's "room", she could make out the feet and legs of a person on the floor. The person wasn't moving, signalling that they were either unconscious or dead. Stephanie was inclined towards the latter since she knew that Loki wouldn't hesitate to kill. Her heart sank to her stomach, assuming that this body belonged to Coulson.

As she leaned against the wall for support, she discovered that she was wrong. Coulson wasn't dead. Stephanie could hear his voice from inside of the room. She peaked into the room from the doorway, carefully, so that neither Loki nor Coulson would see her. She discovered that the body belonged to one of Loki's men, but more importantly she noticed at which point in the scene in the movie that she had stumbled upon -Loki was _just _about to thrust his sceptre into Coulson's chest.

Stephanie needed to act now, realizing that she did not have the time to formulate a plan.

She dashed into the room and tackled Loki to the ground. He shouted out in surprise as her body made contact with his. Loki hit the ground hard, but Stephanie's fall was softened by the fact that she fell on top of Loki.

Coulson and Thor were watched what had happened with shocked, and slightly amused, expressions on their faces.

Within seconds after falling, Loki pushed Stephanie off of him and stood up, making his way over to Phil who was standing next to the control panel. Acting quickly, Stephanie kicked Loki's leg causing him to fall back down. She hastily got up and moved towards Coulson. Her heart was beating rapidly, and endorphins blocked any pain which she should have been feeling from the cut on her arm.

"You…have to go…now." She told Coulson.

But before she could further explain, Loki had snuck up behind her on the floor and grabbed her ankle, pulling her down. She landed on her stomach, causing air to momentarily leave her lungs. In one fluid motion, Loki had stood up and hit her hard on her back with his sceptre causing pain to travel up her spine. Stephanie bit her tongue instead of crying out, she didn't want him to have the satisfaction of hearing her in pain.

Loki, sensing that she was now in a momentary state of weakness, gripped his sceptre and disappeared…And then re-appeared. Behind Coulson.

Looking at her straight in the eye and smirking, Loki thrusted his sceptre into Phil's chest before he had time to register what was going on. Phil cried out in pain for a second before dropping onto the floor.

Stephanie looked helplessly at Coulson, who was slumped against the wall. The blood stain on the front of his shirt was becoming larger. She ignored Loki, who was now standing at the control panel for the cell, and crawled over to Coulson.

"W-Why…are you here?" Coulson asked her in a weak voice.

Stephanie ignored his question.

"Agent Coulson…Phil…I need you to keep your eyes open. Okay. Just keep your eyes open and everything will be fine."

She heard the muted sound of Thor and Loki's voices in the background. She took off her jacket and pressed it against the wound, trying to clot the blood.

And then a shadow appeared over her.

"And what are you doing here, lab rat?"

She glanced up to see Loki's green eyes curiously peering down at her.

Since Coulson was the only thing that she had been focusing her attention on, she failed to notice until now that it was only her, Coulson, and Loki left in the room.

"You're a pathetic little guttersnipe." She glared at him while still applying pressure to Phil's wound.

Loki looked surprised at her comment, but quickly gave out a humourless laugh to cover his astonishment of her.

"Oh. I like you. Full of attitude." He smirked. "I could use you."

Loki stepped closer to her, bringing his sceptre on level with her chest.

It was then that she realized what he planned to do; the same thing that he had done to Clint and Erik Selvig. Stephanie wanted to do something, fight back some how, but she knew that if she stopped applying pressure to Coulson's wound he might die.

Her mind was racing, but she remained where she was. Applying pressure to Coulson's wound, she looked around for anything that she could use as a weapon, and how she could fight off Loki without neglecting Coulson's wound.

She bit her lip. This was going to be hard.

Loki was now holding the sceptre millimetres away from her heart.

"You're not moving." He remarked, again astonished.

"You're a clever one."

"Why?"

"Why are you clever?" Stephanie was pleased to discover that she could talk, and be witty, in these kinds of situations.

"No," Loki replied frustrated. "Why aren't you moving away from this?" He gestured towards the sharp end of the sceptre which was so close that it could piece her heart if she so much as dared to sneeze.

"Because-" But she was cut off by a beam of light, or possibly fire, which passed by her and caused Loki to crash through a wall.

Stephanie turned to look back at Phil.

"So that's what it does." Phil weakly said, before his eyelids started to droop.

"Phil! Keep your eyes open!" She was yelled at him before the doors flew open, and Fury and five medics entered the room.

"What happened?!" Fury demanded.

"H-he was stabbed." She told one of the medics who was kneeling beside Phil.

Gingerly, she removed her hands from pressing on Phil's wound in order to let the medics put Phil on a stretcher.

"You need to come with us, too." A brown-eyed, sandy haired medic told her. "That cut is very deep. You'll need stitches." He gestured to her left arm; the trickle of blood had now turned into a constant flow.

Stephanie was now beginning to feel the pain and effects of her loss of blood; her head felt light and her face had become a little pale. The young medic noticed this, and had Stephanie lean against him for support as they made their way out of the room.

By now, the other four medics had transported Phil to the medical wing of the aircraft.

She nodded. "Will Phil be all right?"

The sandy haired medic only shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not sure; he lost a lot of blood…It could have been worse if you hadn't been here, though."

_Yeah_, she thought_, he would have died._

"Miss Berlin." Fury's voice boomed from behind her.

She paused, still leaning on the medic, and turned her head around.

"Yes, Director Fury?"

"We need to talk."

"Now?" She asked him.

"She needs to get this wound cleaned and stitched up now before it becomes infected or she looses any more blood." The medic, who Stephanie was now dripping blood on, told Fury.

"Fine." Fury grumbled as Stephanie and the medic continued towards the medical wing. "But we _will _talk _soon_."


	12. Suspicion

**Hi! Here is the next chapter. Thank you again for all of your reviews/favourites/follows. There will be a lot more Bruce coming up in the next chapters. ****As always, enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 12. Suspicion**

Stephanie winced as the sandy haired medic, who she had learned was named Jeremy, began stitching up her wound.

She was sitting on a pristine white medical table, surrounded by a bunch of medieval looking, but apparently all state of the art, medical tools.

"Sorry." Jeremy apologized, noticing Stephanie's grimace. "It's going to hurt for a little while longer."

"It's fine, really." Stephanie flashed him a small smile to hide the fact that she regretted her decision of not using anesthetic. She wanted to be alert when Fury would choose to have his "discussion" with her.

"You were really brave in there." Jeremy glanced up at her. "With Loki and all that."

Stephanie touched the back of her neck with her right hand. "It's not a big deal."

"You're being modest. A lot of people would have run...I would have run." He remarked, his face darkening a little.

"Brave can be another word for stupid sometimes." Stephanie sighed. "Besides, no one really knows what they would do in situations like this one until it really happens."

Jeremy stood up, ignoring her comment. "All done."

"Great. Thanks, Jeremy." Stephanie glanced down at her left arm which now had stitches in it. Nine stitches to be precise, all of which she could feel thanks to the faint throbbing of her arm.

"You'll have to remain here for a little longer."

"Fury's orders?" Stephanie asked raising an eyebrow.

Jeremy nodded. "He ordered us not to let you go until he talked with you."

"Oh, great." Stephanie sarcastically said.

"I still can't believe that you yelled at him."

"Does _everyone _know about that?"

"Yep." He smiled at her.

"You, get out."

Stephanie glanced at the door to see Tony striding towards her.

"Didn't you hear me? Go. Now. I need to talk with her." Tony ordered Jeremy.

Jeremy glanced at Stephanie, who shrugged. "See you later."

"Bye, Jeremy. Thanks again." She said to him as he walked out of the room.

Tony waited until the door had closed before he began yelling.

"What were you thinking? I told you to go to your room! You could have become one of Loki's mindless puppets! Or worse, you could have been killed! Why didn't you go to your room?!"

Stephanie just stared at him calmly. She knew that it wouldn't have helped the situation if she just ended up yelling at him -it would have just started a shouting match, with one of them probably saying something that they would regret later on.

"Well?!"

"I'm sorry," She started, "But I…I knew what Loki was going to do to Phil, and I couldn't just let it happen!"

"You knew?" Tony asked. He wasn't yelling anymore, but his voice was slightly raised.

Stephanie nodded. "The same way I knew about what happened exactly when you were captured."

"Why didn't you tell me?" His voice raised a little more -he was on the precipice of yelling again.

"I was afraid that if I told you anything, that well, I'd screw up something." She admitted. "Look, could we not talk about my…gift…now? I'm sure that there are millions of hidden listening devices around."

"Fine." Tony looked at her and gave a brief nod. He paused before speaking again. "…It didn't work."

Stephanie looked confused. "What didn't work?"

"Phil." Tony answered. "He died."

"You're lying. He couldn't have…died. I saved him -I was there to press against the wound!" Stephanie's first instinct was to believe that Tony was lying, merely playing a cruel practical joke on her in order to passively aggressively get her back for not listening to him before.

"Loki pierced Phil's heart with the scepter. No one could have saved him."

"I-I'm sorry…I thought that…that I could stop it from happening." Tears were forming in Stephanie's eyes.

"You couldn't, and you managed to almost get yourself killed!" Tony was back to yelling at her.

She wanted to yell back at him, but held her tongue; she knew that Tony didn't handle grief well.

"Hey!" Steve's voice came from the doorway. "It's not her fault, Stark!"

"Whatever." Tony grumbled, pushing past Steve on his way out of the room.

"Are you okay?" Steve asked Stephanie gently. He was now standing in front of her.

She bit her bottom lip and nodded, not saying anything in fear of sobbing.

"Hey, it's not your fault." Steve told her, wrapping his arms around her and placing his head on top of hers.

"I know." Stephanie mumbled into his shirt. "But if I hadn't gotten lost on my way to-"

"There wasn't anything that you could have done." Steve cut her off. "You had no way of knowing what was going to happen."

She remained silent, focusing on Steve's breathing pattern. Steve seemed to sense that Stephanie needed a few minutes of silence. He didn't say anything; he was content just holding her.

"Captain." Fury's voice interrupted a minute or two later. "I need to talk with Miss Berlin."

Steve reluctantly pulled away from Stephanie who began wiping her eyes with the back of her sleeve.

"Are you all right?" Steve asked her, hesitating to leave.

"I'll be fine. Besides, you need to go save the world now." She smiled at him.

He smiled back at her. "I'll be back soon."

"Don't do anything stupid." She gave a weak smile.

"I won't." Steve promised her, before leaving the room.

"You've grown pretty close to Captain Rogers." Fury commented once Steve had walked down the hall.

"Is that what you wanted to talk to me about?"

"No." Fury carefully studied her. "I want to know more about you."

"More about me?"

Fury nodded. "Before two months ago, there was no record of you."

Stephanie's heart froze for a second, but her mind began to race. She and Tony had hacked into the government's files and added her to their database, but apparently, Fury was able to trace when that information was added…

"No government agency had any record of you before two months ago." He stated again.

Or maybe he was bluffing, pretending to know more than he did. Stephanie decided to go with this possibility.

She shrugged, pretending not to be worried. "Probably something wrong with the system, then."

"I don't like to be lied to." Fury continued to stare her down.

"If you're going to accuse me of something then I think you should say it outright."

Stephanie did not lower her gaze from his.

"I think that you've been working for Loki or Hammer Industries."

"Loki? He almost killed me!"

"He could have killed you as well, but chose not to. Why do you think that is?"

"H-He was about to…Well, not kill me, but do the mind control thing that he used on Clint and Erik Selvig."

"He stopped."

"Because Phil shot him with one of your Phase 2 weapons!" Stephanie yelled at Fury. "And what makes you think that I've been working for Hammer Industries?"

"You knew the location of the Tesseract before anyone else."

"What? I-I knew where it was when the program located it."

"You called out its location right after the program was finished, _before _looking at the screen."

_Shit_, Stephanie remembered. _He's right. But I can't tell him why I'm here, or he'll treat me as a science experiment._

"The program already narrowed down the location to New York. I figured it out after Loki's comments. You know, a shining light for all mankind."

It was plausible, but Fury didn't look as if he believed her.

At that moment, all of the emotions that Stephanie should have been feeling caught up with her, and she started to laugh.

Stephanie tried to stop laughing once she noticed how serious Fury was about his allegations. She was successful for a minute, but then started giggling again.

"I-I'm sorry." She told Fury. "But this is ridiculous. Why would I spy on Tony for Justin Hammer?"

"He's currently the leader in renewable energy. Hammer has been trying to replicate Stark's results for months. Not to mention, Tony's Iron Man suit."

Fury continued to speak instead of waiting for Stephanie to acknowledge his point. "Coupled with the fact that you suddenly showed up, rescuing Miss Potts while Tony was conveniently away in Europe."

"Wait. You think that I set up the whole Grey Goblin thing?" Stephanie was stunned, but secretly pleased that Fury was giving her so much credit.

"Grey Gargoyle." Fury corrected. "It's all just a little too convenient. Don't you agree, Miss _Berlin_?"

Fury said her name as if he knew for certain that it was a fake alias.

"I-I almost died! I didn't stage anything! It was just by chance that I saved Pepper!"

Fury continued to stare at her without speaking.

"I suppose that it was just by chance that all of the video cameras in the area were tampered with as well."

"Tampered with? What? The recordings were sketchy because of the burst of energy -not to mention the huge ass stone guy destroying everything!"

Fury shook his head. "My men found that the cameras were directly tampered with an hour before the incident."

Stephanie was astonished. "A-Are you sure?"

"Positive." Fury replied in a tone of voice which made it clear that he suspected Stephanie to have been responsible for it.

"I didn't do it!" Stephanie defended herself. "Didn't the cameras pick up who did?"

"There was no footage on the cameras to indicate who was responsible."

Stephanie touched the back of her neck. She knew how this looked.

"Director Fury, the Council is waiting for you." Agent Hill stuck her head into the room, interrupting Fury's informal interrogation of her.

"We will continue this discussion, Miss Berlin." Fury told Stephanie before leaving the room with Agent Hill at his side.

"Do you think she's innocent?" Agent Hill asked Fury once they were outside in the hall.

Fury ignored Agent Hill's question and continued to walk down the hall, mulling over his "discussion" with Berlin in his mind.

Once Fury had left, Stephanie let out a breath that she didn't know that she had been holding in. Phil had died, Tony was angry with her, and now Fury was even more suspicious of her.

This had not been a good day.


	13. Cupcakes

**Hi! Here is the new chapter. I know it took a while for me to publish it, so it is longer than the last couple chapters. I hope you like it. Thank you again for your reviews and views (hehehe that rhymed)!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 13. Cupcakes**

"So, do you want Steve or should I take him?" Pepper asked Stephanie.

They were both were standing in the living room of one of Tony's many houses. This particular house was located an hour outside of New York City, and had fifteen bedrooms each with their private washroom, a gym, swimming pool, a tennis court. It was one of Tony's more "modest" homes.

Pepper had sent a private jet to pick Stephanie up after the battle with Loki's army had ended. Fortunately for everyone (except Loki, of course), the battle had followed the same course that it had in the movie; Tony destroyed the alien base with a nuclear missile, Loki had lost, none of the Avengers were seriously injured.

"I'll take him." Stephanie replied.

"All right." Pepper wrote Steve's name under Stephanie's on the white board which was in front of them. "So, you have Steve and Bruce, and I have Tony and Thor."

"That just leaves Natasha and Clint."

"Don't forget Loki." Pepper sighed.

"Loki? But…Really? He's going to stay here?"

Pepper nodded. "An ordinary jail wouldn't be able to hold him. So, Tony and I think that it would be best if he stayed here where the rest of the Avengers can keep an eye on him until Thor takes him back to Asgard."

"Ah. So, which one of us has the pleasure of looking after him?" Stephanie asked sarcastically.

"Could you take him? He gives me the creeps."

Stephanie glanced down to look at the stitches in her left arm, which was still throbbing a little.

"You realize that he tried to turn me into one of his brainless, flying monkeys, right?" Stephanie looked up and was met with Pepper's version of puppy dog eyes. "Fiiiiine, I'll take him." She sighed.

"Thank you!" Pepper said happily, as she wrote Loki's name under Stephanie's.

"You take Natasha, though." Stephanie told Pepper.

"All right." Pepper wrote Natasha's name under her name. "That only leaves Agent Barton."

"Oh!" Stephanie's eyes lit up. "Could I have him?"

"Are you sure? I wouldn't mind taking him. You should be recuperating, you are injured after all." Pepper gestured to Stephanie's arm.

"This? Psh, it's just a scratch. Besides, you have to deal with the Press about the whole aliens-in-New-York-thing. So, really, I'm just thinking about you."

"Are you sure that's the only reason why you want him?"

"Yeah, of course."

Pepper continued to look at Stephanie.

"Okay, maybe the fact that Clint is incredibly attractive has crossed my mind…" She had been a fan of Jeremy Renner since she had seen 'The Hurt Locker'.

"Aren't you with Bruce?"

"What? No. He doesn't like me like that. We're just friends."

"That's not what Tony told me." Pepper smiled.

"Pft, it's Tony. What does he know?" Stephanie rolled her eyes. "So, can I have Clint?"

"All right."

"Yes!" Stephanie pumped her fist into the air.

"So, you have Bruce, Steve, Clint, and Loki. I have Tony, Thor, and Natasha."

"Sounds good. When are they getting here?"

Pepper glanced at her expensive-looking watch. "Half an hour or so."

"Anything that you need help with before they arrive?"

"No, I've got it covered." Pepper smiled. "Why don't you get some rest? We're both going to be running around taking care of the Avengers once they get here."

"You'll have it worse, though -I bet Tony is like a whiny three year-old when he's sick."

"Who says he isn't like a whiny three year-old most of the time?" Pepper smiled.

"Touché. Well, if you don't need help then I'm going to go bake."

* * *

Stephanie was putting the finishing touches on her second batch of cupcakes, making sure that all of the icing was perfect, when she had the feeling that someone was staring at her.

Glancing up, she saw Steve in the doorway watching her. He was still wearing his Captain America uniform which was covered in dust and torn in a few places.

"Steve! Hi!" She smiled at him, brushing some of her hair out of her eyes. "How long have you been standing there?"

"You looked like you were concentrating, I didn't want to bother you." He smiled, looking a little guilty, at her.

"You never bother me."

Steve blushed a little at hearing this, but his faint blush escaped Stephanie's notice. "Thanks."

"You have frosting on your face." He noticed as he walked closer to her.

Stephanie scrunched up her face. "I do? Where?"

"Here, allow me." Steve wiped the little dot of blue frosting from her cheek.

"Thanks…Hey, you're bleeding a little." Stephanie said with her voice full of concern.

"It's nothing."

"No. C'mon, I'll bandage you up." Stephanie took Steve's hand and guided him towards his room. "Here, sit on the bed while I get the first-aid kit."

"It's nothing." He protested.

"You're bleeding. You bled on me. It's something." Stephanie called from the ensuite washroom where she was retrieving the first-aid kit; Pepper had made sure that each of the Avengers' rooms contained one.

A few moments later, Stephanie re-emerged to see Steve patiently sitting on the bed.

"You'll have to, umm, take your shirt off."

Steve obeyed without hesitation.

"Great, thanks."

Stephanie lowered her head to focus on cleaning the wound and applying an antiseptic…Well, that and to hide the fact that she was blushing. She had been here for three months and had already seen two Avengers without their shirts on -this was one perk of the alternate universe that she had entered.

"Okay, done. Uhm, I'll get you a clean shirt to put on."

Stephanie handed him a Stark Industries t-shirt.

"Thank you."

Steve took held the shirt, but didn't put it on immediately. Instead, he gently grabbed Stephanie's wrist and pulled her into a hug.

"I'm glad that you are all right." He mumbled into her neck.

"I-I…" Stephanie was surprised at suddenly being pulled into a hug by Steve. "I'm glad that you're all right, too…I knew you would be, though." She pulled out of the hug, and smiled up at him.

Before Steve could reply, JARVIS interrupted. "Miss Berlin, Doctor Banner needs assistance in his room."

"Thanks for letting me know, JARVIS." Stephanie answered.

"I have to go, but I'll come back to check on you later. Try to get some rest while I'm gone okay?" Stephanie told Steve.

"Okay."

"I'm glad that you're okay, Steve." She turned to tell him before she left the room.

* * *

"Hey, uhm JARVIS told me that you needed help." Stephanie said as she knocked on Bruce's door.

"Hi," Bruce said after he opened the door a crack. "Yeah, I do."

"…Okay. Do you want to let me in, then?"

"No."

"No?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I…I'm not wearing any clothes."

"When you told JARVIS that you needed help, did you mean 'help' or '_help_'?"

"I gave Pepper my dirty clothes before I took a shower, but umm there aren't any clean clothes in the room…Or towels."

Even though she couldn't see him, Stephanie could feel that Bruce was blushing.

"So, let me just make sure that I have this right. You're completely naked."

"Yes."

"And you want me to get clothes for you."

"Yes."

"I don't know." She smiled, teasing him.

"What? Why?"

"I'm just teasing you, Bruce. Of course I'll help. I'll be back in a minute with some clothes."

Stephanie heard him let out an audible sigh of relief on the other side of the door.

"Thank you." Bruce said quietly as she left.

"Oh, Stephanie. Could you help me with something?" Pepper asked as they passed each other in the hallway.

"I can't right now. I have to get back to Bruce; he's naked and waiting for me."

"And I thought you said that you two are just friends."

"We are! He-he just doesn't have any clothes."

"Because you passionately ripped them off?"

"No, he took a shower and-."

"Oh, so you did it in the shower?" Pepper's smile grew at seeing how flustered Stephanie was getting.

"Now you sound like Tony."

"Well, I've been with him for over five years." Pepper shrugged. "He was bound to rub off on me a little."

"Rub off on you, eh?" Stephanie wiggled her eyebrows.

"Shut up. We're talking about you and Bruce." Pepper continued to smile.

Stephanie rolled her eyes. "And now I must be getting back to him. Could you tell Tony that I need to talk with him later tonight?"

"Sure. Have fun with Bruce!" Pepper winked.

Outside Bruce's room, Stephanie knocked on Bruce's door. "I have clothes for you."

"Thanks. Just me a second to put these on."

A minute later, Bruce emerged from his room wearing the black CBGB t-shirt and blue jeans that Stephanie had given him. He saw Stephanie leaning against the wall opposite his room.

"Hey." She smiled at him.

"Hi."

The next thing that Bruce knew was that he was being hugged by Stephanie. It escaped her notice that Bruce had tensed up at first, but then relaxed and started to hug her back.

"I'm so glad that you're okay." She mumbled into his chest before pulling away.

"Thanks. I'm gl-…Hey, you have flour in your hair."

"Huh? …Oh! I was baking and the flour kind of exploded."

"It exploded?" Bruce replied, with a bemused smile on his face.

"I mean it didn't _literally _explode. But, I kind of dropped it a little, and a cloud of flour kind of surrounded me after that happened…"

Bruce let out a laugh.

"Hey!" Stephanie smiled at him while laughing a little as well -Bruce's laughter was contagious. "No cupcakes for you if you're going to laugh at my flour mishap."

"No cupcakes for me?" Bruce pretended to be hurt. "Oh, that's cruel."

"Well, I guess I could make an exception. I mean you did save the world after all. That deserves a cupcake."

"I'd say it deserves two."

"We better go get some then before Tony or Thor eat them all." Stephanie unconsciously took Bruce's hand while leading him to the kitchen.

"Oh my god, these are so good!" Clint said while eating a cupcake, causing little half-chewed bits of cupcake to fly out of his mouth.

Thor mumbled what sounded like an agreement as he simultaneously stuffed another cupcake into his mouth and reached for another one.

"So, I made a batch of chocolate mint cupcakes -those are the ones with the green icing- and vanilla which have blue icing…" Stephanie was telling Bruce when they entered the kitchen and saw Clint and Thor stuffing themselves with cupcakes. "Oh, wow…"

"They must be good." Bruce smiled at her.

"They are, Green One!" Thor happily said through a mouthful of cupcake.

Clint nodded his head in agreement.

"I would tell you to try one, but I'm afraid if you put your hand anywhere near the cupcakes, Clint or Thor might bite it by accident." Stephanie remarked to Bruce.

"Bite what?" Steve's voice came from behind Stephanie.

"A cup of cake." Thor answered.

"A cup of cake?"

"A cupcake." Stephanie clarified. "I should have made more…"

"You made these?" Clint snapped his head up, pausing to continue eating a half-eaten cupcake in his hand, to look at her. Thor paused in mid-bite as well.

It was at this lapse in eating that Bruce and Steve hastily snatched up a cupcake for themselves; Bruce took one with green icing and Steve took one with blue icing.

"Yeah…" Stephanie hesitantly replied noticing their stares.

"So, you can make more then?" Clint looked at her with puppy dog eyes. Blue frosting surrounded his mouth, and there was a spot of green frosting on his nose.

"More!" Thor bellowed, throwing a cupcake on the ground to show his agreement.

"Hey! Don't waste the cupcakes!" Clint told Thor.

Both of them looked solemnly at the cupcake on the ground before turning their attention back to Stephanie.

"Yes, I can make more." Stephanie replied. "But tomorrow."

"But-"

"No. You two are going to get sick from eating so many cupcakes. I baked two dozen cupcakes, and none are left."

"I only had eleven." Clint told her innocently.

"There were cupcakes?" Tony's voice whined from the doorway. "Aww. I didn't get one and it's my house."

Stephanie turned around to smile at Tony. "I'll make more tomorrow."

Stephanie noticed that Tony didn't look mad at her anymore. She breathed a sigh of relief, and thanked cupcakes for their power to bring people together.

He smiled at the mention of cupcakes tomorrow. "Have you seen Pepper?"

"Yeah, she's in the office in the east wing, I think."

"Thanks, Berlin." Tony said before he left the kitchen.

"You're Berlin?" Clint looked surprised.

"Yep. How come you look surprised?"

"I was expecting someone more surly looking."

"Surly? What? Why?"

"You yelled at Fury, so I pictured you as the hefty gym teacher type." Clint answered.

"You know about me yelling at Fury as well?!"

"Everyone knows about that." Tony's voice yelled from the hallway.

Clint offered his hand to shake, but noticing that it was covered with icing and cupcake bits brought it back down to his side. "Nice to meet you."

"You too." Stephanie smiled. It looked like living with the Avengers was going to be fun.


	14. Different

**Hi! I had the urge to write today, so here is a new chapter. Enjoy! **

* * *

**Chapter 14. Different**

Stephanie was in the elevator heading to see Loki. She couldn't avoid him forever. She was, after all, suppose to take care of him. She had already spent the past two hours taking care of Steve, Bruce, and Clint. She had cleaned their wounds, bandaged them up, and even cleaned up Clint's pastel coloured and cupcake scented vomit. But she couldn't put it off any longer; she had to go see Loki.

Although, she knew that she had no reason to be afraid, her body disregarded this fact. It often did. She felt as if butterflies were in her stomach. Actually, no. A more accurate description would be that her stomach felt the way it does when you're not sure if you're hungry or if you will vomit if you try to eat. Yes, that was more accurate, Stephanie thought.

But she was armed. Well, if you could call gauze pads, antiseptic cream, and bandages weapons. _If worse comes to worse, I could throw them at his eyes_, Stephanie considered silently.

She let out a sigh.

The elevator gave a ping signalling that it had reached Loki's floor. Tony had housed Loki in on an abandoned floor in one of the less used wings of his house. Although he had the whole floor to himself, everyone had decided that it would be safer to keep Loki confined to a single room.

Stephanie let out a breath that she didn't know that she was holding and stepped out of the elevator. The hallway was sparse; only a few pieces of furniture were scattered around. The big bay windows let light in, so the floor didn't resemble something out of a horror film.

_Okay, just think of him as Tom Hiddleston. You can do it. Remember, he played Scott F. Fitzgerald in Midnight in Paris. You can do this. You have nothing to worry about; he doesn't have his sceptre. Tom Hiddleston. Tom Hiddleston. Tom Hiddleston._

Stephanie opened the door and found To-…Loki laying on the bed, his face towards the ceiling. His room was similar to the other rooms in the house. It had the same hardwood floors, but it had a smaller window and it was furnished with furniture made out of Ebony African Black wood, instead of Brazilian Rosewood. She briefly remembered Tony telling her that he had programmed JARVIS to recognize a person's palm print and/or DNA in order to open the windows and doors on this floor, so that Loki wouldn't be able to escape.

"About time." he muttered.

Stephanie ignored his comment. "I want to check if you have any wounds that I need to fix up."

Loki sat up and stared at her without saying anything. He was still wearing his battle outfit minus the helmet.

"And I don't mean emotional wounds."

He broke out into a grin. "So it is you. The lab rat."

Stephanie rolled her eyes.

"I'm so touched that you remembered." She said sarcastically.

Loki was about to reply when Stephanie cut him off. "Look, just let me examine to see if you have any cuts or scrapes."

He held his arms at his sides as if to signal that he surrendered.

"You'll have to take off your shirt. It looks like you have a cut on your chest."

"This is going to be fun." He smiled.

"Whatever you are thinking in your tiny, little mind. Stop." She warned him in a low voice that was similar to the tone that parents used to warn their children not to do a stupid thing like set off fireworks in the house or try and steal a llama.

"Tiny mind? I can assure you that nothing about me is tiny."

"I know that your ego isn't."

Loki stood up and removed his shirt. "Happy?"

She noticed his abs, and briefly mulled over all of the things that she would have done if it was Tom Hiddleston instead of Loki who was now standing shirtless in front of her. She had to remind herself that the man in front of her wasn't Tom Hiddleston. Instead of a British actor, the man in front of her was a demi-god who tried to take over Earth with aliens. Part of her still couldn't believe that this was happening to her.

"You have a few cuts on your arms and legs, and a long one on your chest. They're minor and not deep, so they won't require stitches, but I'm going to have to clean them and bandage them up." She had decided to ignore Loki's comment.

Stephanie headed towards the ensuite washroom intending for Loki to follow her. He did.

"Sit there." Stephanie gestured to the marble counter. Loki obeyed, his eyes not leaving her for a second.

Stephanie rummaged through the medical bag she brought containing all of the supplies. Upon finding the antiseptic cream, she looked up and was met with Loki staring directly into her eyes.

"Stop it."

"Stop what?" Loki asked.

"Staring at me."

"Why? Does it make you uncomfortable?" He asked, trying to provoke her.

"Fine, stare. I don't care."

She opened the tub of cream and after washing her hands, she applied it to Loki's wounds. She noticed that he tensed up when she applied it to his chest wound.

"Does it hurt?" she asked him.

"No."

"Too bad."

"So," Loki began while Stephanie was focusing on cleaning the scratches on his arms. "How did you end up here?"

She froze for a moment. Did he know? No. No, it was impossible. He couldn't know…Could he?

"E-End up where?" She hated the fact that her voice quivered albeit slightly.

"With your goody-two shoes Avengers."

He didn't know. Or at least it seemed as if he didn't. Stephanie relaxed a little. "I work for Tony."

"You're not like the rest of them."

"And why is that?" Stephanie was calmly applying bandages to his cuts now.

"You seem like an outsider."

"You're one to talk." As soon as those words escaped her lips, she regretted them. Yes, Loki had tried to take over the world because of his petty grievance with Thor, but his eyes glimmered with hurt for a second. She couldn't stand that look in anyone's eyes. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that."

Loki seemed surprised that she apologized, but ignored it and kept on speaking. "There's something different about you."

"Different? You do realize that the Avengers team is composed of: master assassins, a super soldier, a genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist, and a man who should have died from too much gamma radiation but didn't. I don't think it gets more 'different' than that."

He shook his head and smiled at her. "You know what I mean."

"No, I don't." Stephanie decided that denying everything was the best route to take.

"You know how I know that you're different?" He asked her, pulling her face close to his.

Her mind was screaming for her to punch him and run, but she stood her ground and returned his stare. "How?"

"It's in your eyes."

Stephanie pulled away from him. "You must have hit your head."

"Ah yes, use humour as a defence but you know that I'm right." He smiled at her. Stephanie felt that he was taunting her.

"We're done here. I'll be back later with food. You'll find clean clothes in the top drawer of the dresser." She snapped her bag closed and walked out the door.

"They're not your friends." He called after her, saying 'they're' with a sneer.


	15. Shut Up

**Here is a short chapter to tie all of you over. A new one should follow soon!**

* * *

**Chapter 15. Shut Up**

"Okay, steady. Your hand has to be steady." Natasha told Steve.

"Right. Steady." Steve echoed.

"Be careful. Don't go too fast. This is important." Clint agreed.

"No one moves. I don't want anything to distract Steve." Natasha ordered.

"Oh, come on. It's not that hard. I could do it." Tony rolled his eyes.

"Be quiet, Stark." Steve said. His face was furrowed in concentration, a thin line of sweat was on his brow.

"You'll be fine, Steve. You can do this." Stephanie told Steve.

"Remember, no shaking." Clint said.

"And be gentle." Natasha added.

"Okay, let's do this." Steve said a little shakily before picking up the piece.

Stephanie and the rest of the Avengers were all anxiously watching Steve.

"Careful."

"Rig-" Steve was saying before he was cut-off by a crashing sound.

"Dammnit!" Steve cried out in frustration.

Everyone except Tony let out a groan, and stared at the pile of Jenga pieces surrounding Steve's place at the table.

"Yes! I win! Suckers!" Tony gleefully said while he did a celebratory dance around the living room.

"Ugh, we were _so _close." Natasha complained.

"I know." Clint added.

"Let's play again!" Tony suggested, although it sounded more of an order.

"Again? We already played fifteen times tonight." Bruce said.

"And you won them all." Natasha grumbled.

"Don't hate me because I'm also a brilliant Jenga player, Red."

Natasha rolled her eyes.

Stephanie glanced at her watch and groaned a little. "I have to go bring some food to Loki, but you can play without me."

She got up from the couch where she had been sitting next to Bruce.

"NO!" Clint shouted and everyone turned to look at him. "I mean, no. You shouldn't go alone. I'll come with you."

"I'll be fine. He has no pointy objects." Stephanie smiled. "But you can come if you'd like." she added, noticing Clint gesturing to her to let him come.

"Great. Let's go." Clint hastily sat up and made his way towards the hallway with Stephanie following behind him.

Bruce mentally berated himself for not being faster to offer to go with her.

"I go first!" Tony told everyone while Thor was setting up the next game of Jenga.

"So, how come you wanted to come with me?" Stephanie asked Clint once they were in Tony's spacious kitchen. Stephanie was heating up Loki's dinner, but she kept an eye on Clint who was leaning against the counter. She had to admit that he looked good -worn jeans, a dark grey t-shirt, motorcycle boots, and a black leather jacket.

"If I was forced to play another game of Jenga, I might have gone insane."

"I'm surprised that no one has mutinied against Tony yet."

"Give them time."

Stephanie smiled at Clint's remark.

"Okay, let's head down to his room." Stephanie told Clint with Loki's food tray in her hands.

"Here, I got that." Clint told her, taking the tray from her hands.

"Thanks."

"So, where is Loki being kept?"

"East wing. His is the only room being used on that floor."

Clint smirked. "Too bad it's not in the basement."

"I would have preferred the attic…It would kind of be like 'Jane Eyre' that way, then." Stephanie remarked.

Clint shrugged. "Kind of still is. Bertha, Loki -both are crazy relatives living in an isolated part of the house."

Both of them stepped into the elevator.

"…You read 'Jane Eyre'?" Stephanie asked, the surprise evident in her voice.

"Yeah."

"Huh." She said aloud, impressed.

"Huh?"

"I would have pictured you more of a spy-thriller type. You know, Robert Ludlum or something."

Clint shrugged. "Those books are so inaccurate."

"Oh, really? And why's that?" Stephanie smiled a little. Little did Clint know that in an alternate universe, he played a character who was based on Ludlum's famous Jason Bourne series.

"Too much romance."

Stephanie let out a little giggle.

"What?" Clint asked her seriously.

"Natasha."

Clint's brow furrowed. "What about her?"

"Seriously?" Stephanie looked at Clint who had a lost puppy expression on his face. "You really don't know?"

"Know what?"

"Men." Stephanie sighed before answering Clint's question. "She likes you."

"Yeah, she's my friend." Clint responded as if Stephanie was the clueless one.

The elevator door pinged open, ending any more conversation on the subject.

"His room is this way." She turned to the right and Clint followed behind her with the tray.

Pausing at the door, she turned to Clint. "Why don't you wait here? I'll just be a minute."

As much as she didn't want to admit it, seeing Loki last time really freaked her out. She had worried for the past three hours that he actually knew the truth about her. The _whole _truth about her -the stuff that even Tony and Pepper didn't know. More than that, she was afraid that he would tell -which was why she did not want Clint going in there with her.

She didn't wait for Clint's response before entering the room and closing the door behind her.

"Here's your food."

Loki smiled when he saw her.

"I'm surprised that you trusted me with cutlery." He nodded towards the tray.

"It's plastic. Reduces the chance that you could actually harm someone."

"You'd be surprised."

"Is that a threat?"

Loki smiled at her instead of responding.

"I'm leaving. I'll check on you in the morning." Stephanie said after a moment of silence.

"You're leaving?"

"That is what people do when they walk towards the door." Stephanie replied sarcastically as she continued walking towards the door.

"You're not like the others."

Stephanie stopped and turned around to face Loki.

"Stop saying that."

"Oh, that hit a nerve." He smirked.

"Yes, it hit a freaking nerve because you don't know anything!" Her fear that Loki knew and would reveal her secret was starting to turn into anger.

"Are you sure?"

"You're just projecting your insecurities onto me! You don't know anything about me!"

"I know more than you think." He calmly said, impressed at the effect that he was having on Stephanie.

"Just shut up!"

Clint hurried into the room, standing between Stephanie and Loki.

"Are you all right? I heard yelling." Clint asked Stephanie, looking suspiciously at Loki.

"Yes. Everything's fine. Let's go." She said in a clipped voice to Clint.

She turned around and walked out the door without glancing once at Loki. Once she was in the hallway, she slid down to the floor, locking her arms around her knees. She heard Clint kneel down beside her.

"Hey…Hey. What happened in there?"

"Nothing." Stephanie mumbled.

"It didn't sound like nothing."

"He was being a jerk."

"When isn't he?"

Stephanie lifted up her head. She was met with Clint's green-blue eyes staring into her own green ones.

"I could put an arrow through Loki's knee if you want."

Stephanie gave a little smile. "Thanks, but I wouldn't want you to waste perfectly good arrows."

Clint nodded.

"I just need to get out my anger and then I'll be fine." Stephanie told Clint.

"How?"

"I'll show you what I have in mind." Stephanie told Clint before getting up and walking towards the elevator.


	16. Library

**Here is a new chapter. I think that it's actually longer than my previous ones. Anyways, there is Bruce/Stephanie fluff in it! Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 16. Library**

"This is awesome." Clint said, staring at what was in front of him with eyes wide open in admiration.

"I know, eh! I found it by accident, too!" Stephanie said.

Clint turned to look at her. "Are you ready?"

"Yes! You?" Stephanie eagerly asked.

Clint nodded. "Let's do this!"

Music started up from the two machines in front of them.

"You are so going down!" Stephanie smiled at Clint.

"Yeah, right; I _own _his game!" Clint replied before completely focusing his attention on the Whack-A-Mole game in front of him. Stephanie likewise focused her attention on hitting as many moles as possibly, all imagining them as Loki's face.

"I have an idea how we could make this better." Stephanie said to Clint after the first game had finished.

"How?"

"I just need a digital camera and a printer..."

* * *

After half an hour, Clint and Stephanie had played 10 games of Whack-a-mole. Each of them had won five. Beads of sweat were starting to form on their foreheads.

"Okay, tie-breaker game?" Stephanie suggested to Clint who nodded an affirmative.

The game was wrapping up when Stephanie stole a glance at Clint's scoreboard, showing that he was ten points ahead. While still hitting the pop-up Lokis…er, moles, in front of her, she checked Clint with her hip.

"Hey! Fowl!" Clint shouted.

"We never said we couldn't do that!" Stephanie replied, her eyes still focused on the plush moles popping up.

Clint didn't reply to her comment. Instead, he tried to push her a little off balance as well, just narrowly missing her with his free hand.

The buzzer on the game sounded, signaling that the game had finished. Both Stephanie and Clint looked at their scores.

"Yes! I won!" Stephanie cried out.

"Only because you cheated!"

"You cheated, too!"

"But you cheated first!"

"Are we five years-old now?"

"Yes." Clint said and smiled at her.

"How did you get so good at this game?"

"I worked at a carnival when I was younger." Clint revealed.

"Seriously?" Everything that Stephanie knew about Clint was from the Avenger's movie and what she had picked up in this universe (i.e. that Clint had a major sweet tooth); she had never read any of the Hawkeye comic books.

"Yeah."

"So," Stephanie giggled a little. "You were a carni! I bet you ate way too much cotton candy and funnel cake...Hey, were there any tricks for beating the game where you have to knock down the bottles?"

A noise in the background distracted Clint from answering. "Did you hear that?"

"…Yes." Stephanie's eyes grew wide in alarm. "I think it's Tony! We're not suppose to be in here -this is his private bachelor game room or something! We have to get out of here _now_!" she said all of this in a hush, but worried, voice.

Clint's eyes scanned the room for possible exits since the regular door wasn't an option -Tony would catch them for sure. "There's an air vent, we can crawl through that."

"Are you freaking serious?"

"Yes." Clint headed towards where the vent was. "It's either the vent, or you can explain to Tony why you were in here alone 'cause I'm taking the vent."

"Fine." Stephanie relented. She walked over to Clint who was now taking the screen off of the vent. "Give me a boost."

Clint knelt down on one knee, and Stephanie put her foot into his hands. "Ready?"

"Yes."

Stephanie pulled herself into the vent with Clint's help. Clint pulled himself up moments later, putting the cover of the vent back into its place.

Stephanie's eyes grew wider. "We forgot the pictures."

"There's no time. We're going to have to start crawling." Clint ordered.

"Which way?"

"Right?"

"Why did you say that like it was a question?"

"You would know the layout of the house more than I would!"

Stephanie and Clint's bickering stopped immediately when they heard the door open and Tony's footsteps on the hardwood floor.

"Right it is." Stephanie whispered. "Let's go."

Clint led the way with Stephanie following behind him. They heard Tony's voice shout out behind them.

"Hey! Why are pictures of Loki's face taped onto my Whack-a-mole game?!" Tony called out, presumably to Pepper.

"Do you have any idea where we are?" Stephanie asked Clint once they were further away from Tony.

"I think that we're above the dining room by now." Clint answered.

"Oka-…Did you hear that?" Stephanie asked with a worried expression on her face. "It sounds like something is breaking."

"I don't thin-"

Clint's sentence remained unfinished because the vent gave way, causing Stephanie and Clint to fall.

"Ugh." Clint moaned. He was laying on the floor with Stephanie who had fallen on top of him. The two of them had landed on top of Tony's large dining room table, causing its legs to buckle and break. Pieces of plaster and dust surrounded them.

Stephanie rolled off of Clint's chest onto her back next to him.

"…Well, you were right -we are in the dining room." Stephanie wheezily told Clint.

"A-Are you okay?" Clint turned his head to look at her.

"I…I think so. You?"

"My…My back hurts."

"What the hell happened?" Natasha burst into the room. "Clint, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Natasha."

"I'm fine, too, thanks." Stephanie sarcastically said.

Steve's head popped in the doorway, and his eyes widened when he saw Stephanie laying on the ground.. He had obviously heard the ruckus that Clint and Stephanie had made.

"Are you all right?" He had hurried into the room and knelt down beside Stephanie.

"I'm fine. I think that I'm just going to lay here for a while."

"Me too." Clint agreed.

"Did you two fall out of the ceiling?" Steve asked concerned.

"It feels like we fell from the sky." Stephanie mumbled.

"Wuss." Clint stuck his tongue out at her.

"Carni." Stephanie shot back, causing both her and Clint to chuckle before saying 'Ow, ow! it hurts to laugh'.

"I heard a noi-" Bruce now appeared standing in the doorway. "Uh…What happened?"

"These two idiots fell out of an air vent." Natasha explained.

"We didn't fall out of it…It just kind of collapsed." Stephanie, who was still laying on the floor, corrected.

"This never happened to me before." Clint sounded surprised.

"You must have eaten too many cupcakes." Stephanie joked.

"But I barfed them up!" Clint defended his love of cake-y goodness.

Bruce knelt down in the dust beside the two of them and started examining them for injuries. He examined Stephanie first, making sure to be extremely gently. When he was examining her for any neurological problems like a concussion, he was so close that he could smell the coconut scent from her favourite shampoo. A scent which he had recognized when he caught her in the lab after she had slipped on a blueberry.

"You'll need new stitches in your arm." He told her.

Bruce then turned his attention towards Clint. Natasha was subtly holding onto Clint's hand. "You didn't suffer any major injuries in the fall. You'll be fine –just get some rest."

"But why does my back hurt so much?"

"You landed on some of the Monopoly houses." Bruce told him, holding up a little red plastic house.

"I've always hated that game." Clint said.

"What the hell happened?!" Tony cried out when he walked into the dining room with a Coke in his hand.

"They fell out of an air vent." Natasha updated him.

"No, not about them. What are we going to do about the Monopoly game? We just took a break for food, and Cupid over there broke it!" Tony gestured to the corner of the board that was sticking out from behind Clint's back. "I was winning, too." He added sadly.

"There are more important things than winning, Stark." Steve told Tony. He was currently kneeling down beside Stephanie holding her hand.

"There are more important things than winning." Tony mimicked Steve. "But seriously guys, I won. I had the most money."

"We didn't finish the game." Steve retorted. "So, we don't know who would have won."

"I'm a billionaire. I think it's safe to assume that I can beat a 100 year-old soldier in a game of Monopoly."

"The only thing more painful than landing on a Monopoly piece is listening to you two argue." Clint remarked to Tony and Steve, effectively silencing them for a minute before they started bickering again.

"You're bleeding. I should really fix your stitches." Bruce told Stephanie.

"Would that require me to move?"

"Yes." Bruce smiled.

"Okay, but I will need help getting up."

"Me too." Clint added.

"On the count of three, Natasha you help Clint up and I'll help Stephanie." Bruce ordered. "1…2…3."

Clint's full body weight was flung onto Natasha, but she managed to stay steady, and started to brush off red Monopoly houses from Clint's back.

Stephanie's legs were a little shaky causing Bruce to have to hold her.

"So, stitches?" She asked Bruce, still in his arms.

Bruce nodded. "Do you think you can walk back to your room?"

"I think so." She answered.

Bruce let her go, but remained close to her while they walked to her room just in case she needed him to catch her.

* * *

"I'm going to give you a local anesthetic." Bruce showed Stephanie a needle.

"Okay, I just can't watch -it freaks me out." She told Bruce and then turned her head away from the needle.

"You're just going to feel a little pinch, and then the area should be numb." Bruce explained.

"Okay."

"So," Bruce began to make conversation while waiting for the anesthetic to take effect. "How did you and Clint end up in an air vent?"

"Uhm," Stephanie could not have imagined that she would ever have to explain why she was in air vent with Hawkeye and why the two of them fell out of it. "We ended up in one of Tony's secret bachelor rooms, and had to get out of there before he caught us. The air vent was the only way out -Tony was about to walk into the room." She explained in one breath.

"What were you doing in the room?" Bruce tried to ask nonchalantly. He didn't like the sound of a "secret bachelor" room, especially one of Tony's.

"We were playing an arcade game." She sheepishly told Bruce who felt relieved.

"I'm going to start the stitches now."

Stephanie bit her lip and nodded. She wasn't exactly afraid of getting stitches, but having a needle thread through your arm wasn't something that she was a fan of. Bruce sensed her apprehension.

"Look at me." Bruce told her in a soft voice and she did as he said.

"What is it? You don't have to chop off my arm or anything, do you?" She asked in a slightly panicked voice -she had always been a worrier.

Bruce laughed. "No, no. Nothing like that."

"Then what?"

"I just wanted to tell you that you don't have anything to worry about." He gave her a reassuring smile. "I have done this before."

"You better have done this before." She smiled at him. "You know I trust you, right?"

Bruce flashed a wide grin at her comment. She trusted him. "Y-Yes."

"Hey Bruce?" Stephanie asked once Bruce had finished.

The two had remained silent while Bruce stitched Stephanie's arm up. This had been all right with Bruce -a shadow of a grin was still on his face from when Stephanie told him that she trusted him. It wasn't often that people had said that to him.

"Hmm?"

"I just-"

"How are you?" Steve walked into the bathroom where Bruce had been stitching up Stephanie's arm.

"Oh, Steve. Hi. I'm better now, thanks to Bruce."

"I'm glad." Steve put an arm on Stephanie's back and smiled at her. For the moment, Bruce agreed with Tony for his dislike of Captain America. "Dr. Banner, Natasha wants you to check on Clint."

"Oh umm, all right." Bruce mumbled, packing up the medical supplies.

"We'll talk later then, Bruce." Stephanie touched his arm which momentarily caused him to stop what he was doing for a few seconds. "Thanks again. I'm not sure what we would have done if you weren't here. I would never trust Tony to stitch me up." she smiled while slightly biting her lower lip, causing Bruce's heart to melt a little.

"You're welcome." Bruce had managed to get out. "You should rest for a while. Don't exert your left arm too much. We wouldn't want the stitches to break."

"I'll make sure that she gets plenty of bed rest." Steve told Bruce, his hand still on Stephanie's back.

"Thanks." Bruce said curtly before leaving.

"Steve, I'm fine. Really." Stephanie looked at Steve once Bruce had left.

"I'm not leaving you." He told her. "You need to get some rest."

"I'm fi-"

Steve picked up Stephanie in his arms, cutting off her protests. "You're going to rest in bed for the rest of the night."

"But-"

"Captain's orders."

Steve laid Stephanie gently down on the bed.

"Fine…So, do you want to watch a movie or something?" Stephanie moved over on the bed so that Steve could sit down on her white bed sheets.

"A movie sounds fine. What do you want to watch?"

"Hmm…" Stephanie's mind filled with all of the possibilities. "Alfred Hitchock marathon?"

"I know him!" Steve happily exclaimed. "He did 'Suspicion' with Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine!"

"There's a lot more Hitchcock movies that you have to catch up on, then." Stephanie smiled at him while she started up 'Rear Window' on the TV.

* * *

Stephanie's eyes were still closed, but she could feel something warm next to her. She opened her eyes and was met with darkness. No light shone in from the large bay window, telling her that it must be night. After a few minutes, she could make out the outline of Steve next to her who was fast asleep. His arm was draped around her waist.

The red numbers on the digit clock that was on her nightstand read '2:57'. She debated whether she should go back to sleep, but her throbbing arm and Steve's slight snoring issue made her decided not to. Carefully and moving slowly, she managed to move Steve's arm off of her, and climb out of bed. Silently she tip-toed out of the room, gently closing the door behind her. She decided to go to her favourite room -the library.

In this particular house, Tony's library took up two floors. The walls were lined with shelves made from a rich coloured wood. There were even book ladders attached to the shelves to help the occupant reach some of the higher book shelves. The room was furnished with dark and rich colours such as red and brown, but large windows provided light. There was even a functional fireplace. Her favourite thing about the room, besides the books of course, was the numerous comfortable chairs and sofas scattered over the first and second floors.

She stealthily walked into the library -even though she assumed that she was alone, she had been conditioned from a young age to be quiet whenever she was in the library or her father's office. She had gravitated to the shelf on the first floor where her favourite book was kept -thankfully, Pepper had arranged the books alphabetically and by genre. Unknown to Stephanie, Bruce, who was on the second floor of the library, had been watching her since the moment she had entered the library.

After having found a novel, she decided to go to her favourite spot in front of the window on the second floor to read. Her favourite spot just happened to be on the couch where Bruce was currently sitting in his pajamas (a dark grey t-shirt and light blue cotton pants with dark blue stripes) with a physics book open his lap.

"Hi." Bruce said, realizing that he would have to make himself known or be forced to hide in the library until Stephanie left.

Stephanie jumped, startled from hearing a voice. "B-Bruce?"

"Yeah, hi." He sheepishly said.

"You scared me. I thought I was alone."

"Oh uh, I could go…"

"No, no! Don't!…I mean, you don't have to. I was just surprised at hearing your voice."

"Sorry."

"Can't sleep?" She asked Bruce as she took the spot next to him on the brown leather sofa.

"No. You?"

"Nope. How long have you been here?"

He glanced at his watch. "About an hour. I left when Tony won the third game of Monopoly."

"He managed to recover the pieces and everything?" Stephanie asked, alluding to her earlier mishap that had involved an air vent and Clint.

"I think he bought a new one."

"Ah."

"So, umm, d-didn't you want to uh tell me something?" Bruce nervously asked. He had been going over all of the possible things that Stephanie was about to say to him before Steve interrupted.

"Yeah. Just that I'm really proud of you. It looked like you kind of embraced the Hulk during the whole alien invasion. And I know that must not have been easy for you to go back…" She told him.

"Thanks, but-"

"No, Bruce. You were awesome. You helped save the world, and you caught Tony which probably means that the Hulk isn't only composed of negative things –he could recognize Tony and that he is your friend…So, just accept the compliment I'm giving you." She touched him arm and smiled at him.

"Thanks." A faint blush appeared on his cheeks. "So, uhm, what book do you have?" He was eager to get off of the subject before his blush at her compliment became noticeable.

"'Far from the madding crowd'. It's my favourite." She showed him the cover. "My dad actually wanted to name me after the main character, Bathsheba. I'm _so _glad that my mom stopped him."

"What's the book about?"

"Uhm, the simplistic version is that Bathsheba has to choose between three men who like her. One is a soldier in the army who everyone knows is bad for her except her, the other is a humble farmer, and the third is a rich and slightly older farmer. His prose is amazing. My father read it to me when I was younger…"

"Who does she end up picking?"

"I am not going to give away the ending. You'll just have to read it to find out."

"I'm curious." Bruce put his physics book on the table next to him. "Read it to me?"

Stephanie smiled at him before she began reading the first chapter, and that was how Stephanie's first day living with the Avengers had ended.


	17. Very Pretty

**Hi! So I know that it has been a while since I updated (forgive me?) Classes started up again, so I've been busy. Updates will probably happen about every week or so (depending)...Unless anyone wants to do my readings for me? Anyone?**

**...No? Okay. *Sigh* Here's the next chapter. Enjoy! **

* * *

**Chapter 17. Very Pretty**

Stephanie had reached the middle of the third chapter before Bruce's head fell against her shoulder. She gazed down at the sleeping scientist, letting her eyes wander all over his features. Gently, she ran a hand through his dark hair that had a touch of grey in it. Carefully, she took off of his glasses and placed them on the nightstand. Then, she took the grey fleece blanket hanging on her side of the couch, and draped it over herself and Bruce before cuddling up to him and falling asleep.

During the night, Stephanie and Bruce had unconsciously changed their positions. Stephanie now had her head near the nape of Bruce's neck with one of her hands resting on his chest and had the other loosely placed around his waist. In turn, Bruce's arms were wrapped around Stephanie's waist, and his chest rested on her head.

In her not-quite-a-dream-but-not-quite-awake state, Stephanie nuzzled her head further into Bruce's neck. A trace of a smile was on her lips, possibly from her dream or possibly from remembrance that she had fallen asleep next to Bruce.

Bruce, who had been awake for the past twenty minutes, also had a smile on his lips. His smile was due to having spent the last twenty minutes memorizing everything that he could about Stephanie -her long dark eyelashes, her short fingernails which she most likely bit at times, the smudges of pen on her right hand.

Opening her eyes, Stephanie looked around for a few seconds before realizing that what her hands were wrapped around was not a heat-emitting pillow that had made so much sense in her previous dream-like state, but was Bruce.

"Hey." Stephanie yawned and ran a hand through her slightly tousled hair. A faint blush appear on her cheeks from being so close to Bruce, but she didn't move away.

"Good morning." Bruce said softly.

"Did you sleep well?" She asked, shifting so that she could move her right foot which had fallen asleep.

"Yes." Bruce didn't mention that, for the first time in a long time, he didn't have any nightmares about the Other Guy coming out. He _also _did not tell Stephanie that he had dreamt of her. "You?"

"Very well." She stretched out her arms above her head. "What time is it?"

Bruce glanced down at his well-worn watch, scratches marked the case and the leather band was almost falling apart. "7:39am."

"I don't think that anyone else is up yet."

"That is correct, Miss Berlin. Only you and Dr. Banner are currently awake." JARVIS' voice sounded out.

"Thank you, JARVIS." Stephanie looked up at the ceiling to address JARVIS before turning back to Bruce. "Are you hungry?"

Bruce hesitated before speaking; he was hungry, but he also didn't want to move away from Stephanie. "A little."

"C'mon, I'll make you breakfast."

The smell of apples and cinnamon, from the freshly baked muffins cooling on the counter, filled Tony's kitchen. Stephanie was making fresh squeezed orange juice while Bruce was busy making pancakes.

"You're staring at me." Bruce said without averting his eyes from the pancakes on the grill.

"What? No, I'm not."

Truthfully, Stephanie had been. She had been glancing at him for the past twenty minutes, taking all of the little details about him in: the way that his hair fell, the look on his face when he was concentrating on something, and how cute he looked wearing an apron.

"Yes, you were. Why?"

"You were looking down for the whole time. How could you have come to the obviously false conclusion that I was staring at you if you were concentrating on making pancakes?"

"How would you have known that I was looking down if you weren't looking at me?" He asked, obviously pleased at his cleverness. Plus, he knew that she had been looking at him since he had been sneaking glances at her in the reflection of a mirror.

"I saw you from the corner of my eye!" Stephanie protested.

"Suuuure."

"God, Bruce. Has your ego become as large as Tony's to assume that I was staring at you?"

"Hey, I heard that." Tony's voice came over the intercom.

Bruce and Stephanie ignored Tony.

"So why were you staring at me?"

"I wasn't."

"You were."

"Nope."

"Yes."

"No. Look, I grew up with an older brother; I can do this all day."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"Okay, hypothetically speaking, if I _was _staring at you, which I wasn't, it'd be because you're…" _So handsome_, Stephanie thought. "Tan."

_Wow, really? That was the first thing that came to my mind? _

"Because I'm so tan?"

"Yeah, tan. You're a physicist. Physicists are suppose to be pale." She gestured to herself. "See? I'm pale."

"Yes, but I was in India."

"Still," She shrugged. "Seeing a tan and handsome physicist is like finding out what happened to Schrödinger's cat or seeing a unicorn."

"You think I'm handsome?" Bruce smiled, a warm sensation spread through his body.

"I said you were tan."

"And handsome."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes." Tony's voice came over the intercom again. "You said he was handsome."

"Tony, what the hell! Mind your own business."

"She's just upset because we're right." Tony remarked to Bruce over the intercom. "I can prove it. '_Seeing a tan and handsome physicist is like finding out what happened to Schrödinger's cat or seeing a unicorn'_. I'm so glad that installed a security system with video _and _audio in the house."

"I hate you so much right now Tony." Stephanie grumbled.

"Love you, too!" Tony said in an especially chipper voice which he knew would further annoy Stephanie. "Bruce, the pancakes are burning. Might wanna fix that Big Guy."

Bruce glanced down at the slightly charred pancakes and hastily flipped them over.

"Crisis averted. Yay." Tony sarcastically said. "I'll be there soon."

"Tony can be so annoying at times." Stephanie mumbled as she reached for a muffin.

Bruce flashed a wide grin at her. "So you _do _think I'm handsome."

"Yes, Bruce. You are very pretty." Stephanie deadpanned.

"Who is pretty?" Thor bellowed as he walked into the kitchen.

"Bruce."

"Aye, the Green One is beauteous."

"Hear that, Bruce? You're beauteous."

Clint padded barefoot into the kitchen with his hair sticking up in different direction. "Beauteous? Who's beauteous?"

"Bruce is!" Stephanie smiled at Bruce. "Anyways, I better bring some food to Loki. You guys should keep discussing Bruce's beauteousness…Is that even a word?"

Clint shrugged before pouring half a bottle of maple syrup onto the pile of pancakes that Bruce had handed to him. Somehow Stephanie knew that he would end up with maple syrup on his nose.


	18. Rooftops

**Hi! It's Friday, so I thought that I would update. Yes, it's short. I know. But it is an update. Anyways, thanks again to everyone! **

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 18. Rooftops**

Stephanie was reading on top of Tony's roof. Every time that she glanced up from the novel, she was met with the view of the vast forest at the back of Tony's estate. The black slate roof tiles were warm, but a cool breeze made her spot on the roof very comfortable.

After she had visited Loki and gave him his food, she had found the Avengers playing Yahtzee in the living room. Bruce, who had been forced to play eleven games already, had seen Stephanie in the doorway and gestured to her to save herself from Tony's Yahtzee reign of terror before Tony spotted her.

She had ended up on the roof due to the fact that it was the only place that she didn't have to hear the word 'Yahtzee!' yelled every five minutes.

From the corner of her eye, Stephanie thought that there had been a movement in the forest. She focused her attention on the area, but did not see anything; she continued to stare for a few minutes just in case it would resume. When it didn't, she attributed it to the wind and continued to read.

She was so absorbed in the novel that she hadn't heard someone climb onto the roof.

"Hey."

The voice startled Stephanie, subconsciously she had linked with it with the ominous movement in the forest, and her initial reaction was to throw her book at the person in self-defense. It was only after she had thrown the book, directly hitting the person on the head, that she realized who she had assaulted with her paperback.

"Clint! I'm so sorry!"

"It's okay. I didn't mean to scare you." He told her, rubbing the spot on his head where the book had hit him.

"Startled."

"What?"

"You startled me. You didn't scare me."

"Suuure."

"Oh, shut up." She smiled at him.

Clint picked up her book which had fallen near his feet, and went to sit down beside Stephanie.

"So what are you doing up here?" He asked her.

She shrugged. "It's quiet and I like the view. What about you? Not playing Yahtzee?"

"Freakin' Yahtzee." Clint grumbled.

"Give Tony a break," She smiled at Clint. "He was an only child. I don't really think he had play dates when he was younger. Having the Avengers staying with him is kind of like a big sleepover for him."

Clint looked at her, making an odd sensation come over her. She wasn't sure if it was good or bad, but she was distracted from contemplating the feeling further.

"OH! Did you see that?" She asked, pointing towards an area in the forest. She had seen movement again, but this time it was on the other edge of the forest.

"No. What was it?" Clint's back had been facing the area of the movement, and it had ceased before he turned his head around.

"It looked like something was moving." Stephanie's brow furrowed. "There it is again!"

This time he saw it. The movement was slight, barely even noticeable. So slight, in fact, that a person would probably miss it if it wasn't for the small reflection of light that accompanied the movement.

Clint looked concerned.

"It could just be my mind playing tricks on me or the wind. Or maybe it's some animal or a press photographer..."

"Could be." Clint agreed, but neither of them fully believed that.

Clint noticed Stephanie nervously biting her bottom lip and playing with the jade pendant on her necklace. He decided to change the topic to get her mind off of the movement. "So, 'To Kill a Mockingbird'?" He held up the paperback that she had thrown at him.


	19. Life and Death

**Hi, everyone! Here is the next chapter (I felt bad for making the last one so short and taking long to post this one, so chapter 19 is a little longer). Thank you again to everyone who comments/favourites/follows the story. You love me, you really love me!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 19. Life and Death**

"Not again." Natasha moaned.

"It's a girl!" Clint yelled.

"That makes seven!" Tony said cheerfully.

"I bet they're all going to be like mini ninja assassins." Stephanie said to Natasha.

"At least they'd be quiet if they were ninja assassins." Clint said.

"True, but you would have a hard time finding them to take a bath or go to sleep." Stephanie pointed out.

"Do you doubt my powers of surveillance?" Clint joked.

"I'm just saying that you shouldn't underestimate a toddler who has ninja-like abilities."

"I'll keep that in mind, Mockingbird."

Stephanie smiled at Clint's use of the nickname that he had given her.

"Mockingbird?" Bruce asked.

"She needed a nickname. Everyone has one except her." Clint shrugged. "So, what are you going to name your new kid?" Clint asked Natasha.

Natasha glared at him. "Shut up, _Officer _Barton."

"Hey! It was either that or an artist and you know that I can't paint!"

"Just hurry up and spin the wheel!" Tony interjected. "I'm winning."

"How can you be winning?" Steve asked. "We're playing the Game of Life. You can't win at life."

Tony looked at Steve. "What part of genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist are you not understanding?"

All of the Avengers except Thor were sitting in Tony's living, all sitting around a large, oval table playing another board game. Thor had given up after accidentally crushing two car pieces, and had instead decided to go check on Loki.

It had been three hours since Stephanie and Clint had seen, or had thought that they had seen, movement in the forest. A review of the footage on Tony's security camera had revealed nothing out of the ordinary except for a few abnormally large, well-fed squirrels. Since the security footage had turned up clean, Clint and Stephanie had decided not to mention it to anyone.

Natasha rolled her eyes.

"Hey! I saw that!" Tony cried. "You might want to focus on your seven children instead of me!"

"Says the one who has twins."

"Don't bring Tony Jr. and Milo into this!"

"Tony Jr.?" Natasha raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"And what did you name your kids? Boris and Igor?" Tony directed at her.

Stephanie laughed but then tried to stifle her laughter when she caught Natasha glaring across the table at her.

"And what did you name your fake, plastic children?" Natasha demanded.

"Fake and plastic -that's cold." Tony told her, preventing Stephanie from answering.

"It's just a game." Natasha sighed, obviously annoyed by the fact that she had to put up with Tony.

"Being a parent is no game." Tony shot back.

"You're taking this too seriously, Tony." Natasha told him before looking around at everyone. "Did all of you name your kids?"

Everyone nodded.

Natasha sighed. "Fine. I'll name them."

"Less talk; more play." Tony ordered, gesturing to the game.

Stephanie stretched her arms above her head and then stood up. "I'm going to check on some stuff in the lab."

"What? You can't leave!" Tony protested. "It's almost your turn!"

"Just say that I died from getting struck by lightning or being mauled by a bear or something." Stephanie sighed. She had just thought of checking the infrared feature of Tony's security system. It might have caught whatever made the movement in the forest. She mentally berated herself for not thinking of checking the infrared system sooner.

"But-" Tony protested.

"I'll give you the money that I have and my Victorian house." Stephanie told him, handing over her fake money and the card for the house.

The offer seemed to satisfy Tony who started ordering Steve to hurry up and spin the wheel.

* * *

"Shit. Nothing." Stephanie sighed after having looked at the security footage. "I guess I must be going crazy…"

"Crazy?"

Stephanie slightly jumped at the voice, but immediately recognized it as Steve's. "Oh, hey Steve."

"Sorry -I didn't mean to scare you."

"It's okay. It seems to be happening a lot today." Stephanie shrugged.

"What's wrong?" Steve asked, gesturing towards the computer screen that had the security footage on it.

"Oh, nothing. I just thought I saw something in the forest when I was outside today, but it turns out it was nothing…"

"You don't seem convinced."

Stephanie smiled at him. "I'm not. I still think that I saw something."

"Let's go see for ourselves, then."

"Really?"

Steve nodded, unaware of the real possibility that something dangerous could be in the forest. He had strolled along the grounds near the edge of the forest yesterday and, besides for seeing slightly obese squirrels, nothing was out of the ordinary.

"Okay, thanks." Stephanie swiped her keys off the desk and put them into her pocket. "Let's go."

* * *

"What are you doing?" Steve asked once they were walking along a trail in the forest.

"Looking for a sign that someone was here. You know -a shoe print, a piece of cloth on a twig…" Stephanie paused. "I think that I've been watching too much CSI."

"CSI?"

"It's a TV show where they investigate crime scenes. I'll show it to you sometime."

Steve nodded.

"I don't see anything out of the ordinary. I guess I was wrong."

"Well-"

"Or maybe we're not looking in the right place."

"W-what do you mean?"

"We're on the trail. What self-respecting evil villain type sticks to the trail? It would be too easy to get caught."

Steve, who was sure that nothing was in the forest, decided to indulge Stephanie and go deeper in, off of the trail. If anything, it would mean more time with her (and, unconsciously, he thought that it would allow him to look heroic when he saved them from getting lost after wandering from the path).

After a good hour of walking around, off of the trail, Stephanie sat down on a tree stump. "Ow!"

"What happened? Are you all right?"

"Huh? Yeah. I just accidentally sat on my keys." Stephanie explained. After a few moments of silence, Stephanie turned to him. "You win -there's nothing here."

Steve frowned. "I never said that."

"True, but you wouldn't have come this deep into the forest with me if you thought I would be in danger. You're pretty amazing that way –always looking out for everyone." Stephanie flashed a smile at Steve.

Steve felt as if he was glowing from her compliment.

The sound of a twig breaking in the distance occurred to their left.

"It's probably some abnormally fat squirrel." Stephanie commented.

Steve nodded. "How come there are so many fat squirrels on Tony's property?"

"No clue. Maybe some genetic testing that went horribly wrong and created a new subspecies of squirrel. Or maybe Tony feeds them too much."

After wandering around the forest for an hour, she was now fully convinced that the movement that she and Clint had thought they'd seen was just part of their imagination. Her, and especially Clint, were not used to such uneventful days. She had lived through an alien invasion, almost becoming Loki's mindless slave in the process -ordinary didn't seem to describe her life anymore. It seemed likely that her mind had been playing tricks on her.

It was likely, but not true.

A scream, possibly of someone in pain, came from their left.

Stephanie looked at Steve with slightly wide eyes. "I-I don't think that that was a squirrel."

"Me either. I'm going to go see. Stay here."

"But-"

"Stay here." Steve ordered.

"Fine. Be careful, and shout if you need help."

Steve nodded an acknowledgement before heading off in the direction that the sound came in.

Stephanie rigidly sat on the stump, waiting for Steve to come back. She thought that the scream was probably nothing, probably just one of Tony's pranks, but the little voice in her head told her to be alert.

Her mind was starting to think about all of the horrible things that could happen to her and Steve. _Serial killer in the woods, a tree could fall on one of us, bear attack. Ha. That's kind of funny. I just told Tony a few hours ago about imagining me getting mauled by a bear…Wait. Are there bears here? Maybe black bears. Are black bears more dangerous than brown bears, or is it the other way around? Okay, think. What do you do if a bear attacks you? Climb up a tree? Can't bears climb? I think they can climb. Okay. Uh. Think. Run in zig-zags? No, that's for snipers or crocodiles or something. Hit it with a stick? No, that would probably make it more furious. Hmm. Hmmmmmm. Play dead? Yes! I think that's it…Okay. Okay, Stephanie. Just play dead if you see a bear. That shouldn't be too hard at this point; I'd probably just have a heart-attack from seeing a bear right now. _

Stephanie was continuing to think about a plausible bear attack when she was grabbed from behind. She managed to let out a grasp before whoever had grabbed her forcefully pull her off of the tree stump and clamped their hands around her neck. Her first instinct was to kick her attacker, but that just made him tighten his grip on her neck.

Her mind was buzzing. She knew that if she didn't get out of her attacker's grasp soon, the blood supply to her brain would become cut off resulting in unconsciousness, brain damage, and possibly even death.

She scanned the ground but couldn't find a rock within reach. Besides, she had the feeling that if she did try to reach, her attacker would not hesitate to break her arm. Biting his arm wouldn't work either -he was wearing a coat made out of some heavy material, possibly canvas. He wouldn't even feel it if she bit down.

And then she thought of it. _Keys_. They were in her pocket. It wasn't exactly a sharp knife, but she figured that getting stabbed with anything would hurt enough for her attacker to loosen his grip on her even slightly.

Carefully, she moved her right hand down to her pocket. When she felt her fingers skim her metal keys, she clasped them in her fist, making sure that the pointy edge was in the direction of her attacker's leg. She counted to three in her head before mustering up all of the strength that was left in her and stabbed the attacker in his leg. She didn't realize that she had hit his groin with the keys until he dropped her and shouted a string of profanities. One of her keys was still stuck in him, blood slightly oozing from it.

Stephanie started gulping for air once she was on the ground. All of this had happened within sixty seconds or so.

Her legs were shaky, so she decided to start crawling in the direction that Steve had disappeared in. Chances were that it wasn't just her attacker in the forest.

Before she could put any distance from her and her attacker, something heavy and large fell on her. After the split-second of initial shock, she had realized someone else must have tackled her since her original attacker was still writhing in pain a few feet away from her.

Before she could act, the second man roughly jabbed her in the leg with some sort of needle.

Stephanie only had time to scream in surprise and pain before she drifted into unconsciousness.


	20. Red, Red Rose

**I know, I know. It was unbelievably cruel to take so long to post after the last chapter's cliff-hanger. Hopefully this chapter makes up for it. **

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 20. Red, Red Rose**

"What the hell were you thinking?!" Tony yelled at Steve. A vein in Tony's neck was clearly popping out.

Steve, who was covered in cuts and partially dried blood, opened his mouth to speak but Tony cut him off and continued ranting.

"You left her _alone_! You weren't thinking!"

Clint and Natasha were standing behind Tony silently watching the scene before them. Tony, who thought that Loki was the most likely suspect, had sent Thor to pay his brother a visit. Bruce had left the room minutes after learning what had happened. The Avengers weren't entirely sure where Bruce had went, but they knew, through various smashing sounds, that the Hulk had made an appearance.

"The security cameras were clear when they went out." Clint spoke up. "He couldn't have known."

Clint was furious at what had happened, but conceded that there was no way that any of them could have predicted the ambush.

Tony turned on his heel to face Clint.

"What do you mean you the security cameras were clear this afternoon?" He demanded. Tony was inches away from Clint's face, but continued to yell.

Clint's eyes grew slightly wider at the realization that he was now in the hot seat.

"We thought we saw a movement when we were on the roof, but we didn't see anything on the security footage."

Natasha raised an eyebrow at the fact that Stephanie and Clint had been alone on the roof together, but continued to remain silent.

"Did it ever occur in your little bird brain to tell us about the movement?" Tony yelled.

"There was nothing in the footage! Stephanie didn't want to worry anyone, so we didn't mention it." Clint defended his decision.

"And look what happened because of that! A group of men attacked them!" Tony shouted.

"I didn't know that there was a group of guys! It sounded like a single person who was in danger!" Steve replied, his voice rising. "I would never want anything to happen to Stephanie. I _love _her!"

Steve's face was pale. He had been beating himself up over what happened, especially since movements before the attack Stephanie had complimented him on how he always protected her.

"If you love her then you shouldn't have left her alone!" Tony shouted. "Fix this by finding out who did it." He glared at Steve and Clint before stomping down the hallway.

* * *

"Bruce?" Pepper hesitantly asked from the doorway, and was met with a muffled reply.

Pepper cautiously stepped into the room. Bruce was on the floor. His clothing -or at least what had been his clothing- was in shreds around him. The door was falling off of its hinges, a lamp was broken, and one of the chairs in the room now had only three legs, but, other than that, the damage had been restricted to the hallway…or at least what had been the hallway.

"You should go get some rest." Pepper placed one of her dainty hands on Bruce's back.

"I don't want to. I should have been there. I could have protected her." He mumbled, remorse evident in his voice.

"Bruce, don't beat yourself up over it." She had started to rub his back in an effort to console him. "The best thing that you can do now is get some sleep. You'll be no use if you're exhausted."

Bruce hung his head in defeat and shakily stood up. Pepper handed him some clothes to change into, and turned away.

"Sorry about the lamp." He quietly mumbled on his way out of the room.

"Don't worry about it. Just make sure to get some rest." Pepper smiled at him before turning back to the survey the room's damage.

* * *

"Hey." Tony quietly said to Pepper who was reading in a comfy armchair.

"Hi." She placed the novel on her lap. "Did Steve tell you anything that could identify who did it?"

"No."

"Is that because you were yelling at him instead of letting him talk?" Pepper smiled up at Tony. She noticed how tense and exhausted he looked.

Tony shrugged. "Maybe."

"Tony, I could hear you from down the hallway."

"It was his fault!" Tony slumped into the chair beside Pepper.

The two remained silent for some time.

"How is she?" Tony gestured to the bed in front of them where Stephanie was laying unconscious.

Her chest was moving up and down signaling that she was breathing albeit shallowly. Bruises were starting to form on her neck and wrists, and there were a few, small scrapes on her face. Pepper had cleaned up the shards of the lamp that Bruce had smashed when was the Other Guy, and moved the now defunct three-legged chair to a corner of Stephanie's room.

"Still no change. I saw her move a little when Bruce came in. She touched his hand which seemed to calm him down."

"She touched his hand?" Tony asked sounding surprised.

Pepper nodded. "Probably just an involuntary motor movement."

"Bruce agreed to leave?"

"I nearly had to push him out of the room. He needed to get some rest. The whole Hulk episode exhausted him."

"So Bruce did hulked out, huh?"

"Only a lamp and a chair were broken, as far as I can tell. I think he just wanted to be near Stephanie -to see that she was okay."

"Who knew you'd be dealing with the Hulk when you signed up for the job, huh?" Tony smiled at Pepper.

"Somehow, it doesn't surprise me."

* * *

Stephanie was reluctant to return to consciousness. To return to where pain was. Every part of her seemed to ache, even muscles that she never knew existed. Her left leg was throbbing, causing pain to pulsate throughout her body which, combined with her feeling of light headedness, made her feel a little nauseous. She knew that when she opened her eyes they would be assaulted by the light, allowing a fresh wave of pain to take over. She knew this, but she eventually opened her eyes anyways.

She saw Pepper sitting in a chair beside the bed.

"Pepper?" Stephanie's voice croaked out. Her throat was dry and her lips chapped.

Immediately upon hearing Stephanie's voice, woke up from her light slumber. She had sent Tony to bed a few hours ago, promising that she would wake him if anything happened.

"How are you feeling?" She asked. Pepper handed Stephanie some water before telling JARVIS to tell the others that Stephanie was awake.

"Where's Steve? Is he okay?"

"He's fine. A little beat up, but fine." Pepper consoled her.

Stephanie, who had ignored the water until she knew that Steve was safe, took a big gulp before asking her next question.

"How am I alive?"

The Avengers walked into the room before Pepper had a chance to answer. All of them looked as if they hadn't gotten much sleep. A little stubble was starting to show on Bruce. Stephanie muttered out a meager "hi" in response to their greetings.

"Do you remember what happened?" Natasha asked, jumping right to the point.

"A little. Two men jumped me. It's a little hazy."

Stephanie had noticed that Steve wasn't looking her in the eye, much less at her, whenever she glanced at him.

"Capsicle was ambushed by a group of men, while you were fighting off your attackers." Tony began to fill her in. "Clint saved you."

Stephanie looked at Clint. "You saw the glint of light in the woods again?"

Clint nodded. "I knew that you and Steve had gone into the woods. I wanted to make sure that everything was okay."

"Thank you."

"You did a number on that one guy." Clint smiled. "We should call you 'ball buster'."

Stephanie smiled. "Let's stick with Mockingbird."

"Do you know who attacked you?" Natasha asked getting right to the point.

"Probably Loki." Tony answered for Stephanie.

"My brother-" Thor began to argue that his brother wasn't involved when Stephanie interrupted him.

"It wasn't Loki."

Tony was going to say something, but Stephanie continued speaking.

"Whoever did it was military. They had high-tech body suits on. Military grade. It explains why the infrared system didn't capture them -the suits blocked their body heat."

"You're sure?" Natasha inquired.

"Completely. I worked on a new model of those suits at…at my former job." Stephanie was grateful that she had caught herself before mentioning Pyper Industries. No one except Tony and Pepper knew about her previous life.

"How are you feeling?" Bruce asked, running a hand through his disheveled hair.

She gave him a small smile. "My hearts still beating."

Stephanie turned her attention back to Tony. "Did you do a blood analysis to see what they injected me with?"

"Standard sedative."

"Let me see the results."

Tony complied and brought up the results. She turned towards Tony and Bruce.

"You know what this means, don't you?"

Both Tony and Bruce nodded.

"What does it mean?" Pepper, who had remained sitting in the chair beside Stephanie's bed, spoke up.

"They were probably after me." Stephanie answered.

"How do you know that?" Natasha looked at Stephanie with suspicion in her eyes.

"Levels of the sedative." Bruce replied.

"What about them?"

"They're too low to have taken down me, Thor, or Steve due to our…unique…body chemistry. They were also too low to knock out a full-grown man." Bruce explained.

"And what about me?" Natasha asked.

"You were biotechnologically enhanced. The amount wouldn't have affected you either." Stephanie spoke up. "If it was a dose made for you or the rest of the Avengers, it would have killed me."

"How did you know that I was-"

"It was in your file." Stephanie answered. "Which leaves either me or Pepper as possible targets."

"Right." Bruce agreed, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

A thought occurred to Stephanie. "Did you do a DNA test on the blood that was on my keys?"

Tony shook his head.

"Another guy showed up. They got away. Took the keys with them." Clint explained. He had purposely left out that he was more focused on making sure that Stephanie had been alive than catching the men. He had let his feelings get in the way. Rookie mistake.

"They did leave this, though." Tony spoke up, pulling a polished sliver pocket watch out of his jeans' pocket. "Kind of fancy."

"It's probably what caused the glimmer of light that we saw in the woods." Clint remarked.

Stephanie's voice caught in her throat when she saw the watch. It took her a minute before she could speak.

"Let me see it."

Tony handed the watch to Stephanie, and she turned it over in her hands for a while.

"Pepper wasn't the target." She finally spoke, while continuing to look at the watch. "They wanted me."

"How can you be sure?" Thor asked.

"The lines '_And I will luve thee still, my dear / While the sands o' life shall run_' are engraved on the back."

Stephanie turned the watch over to show the engraving to the Avengers who surrounded her bed.

"So?" Natasha said.

Stephanie breathed in and then out, to prevent tears from forming, before answering.

"It's part of a poem written by Robert Burns. It was my father's favourite poem. My mother had it engraved on the pocket watch that she gave to my father as a wedding gift. This is my father's."

"I thought your parents died." Clint said, remembering that Stephanie had mentioned it when they were on the roof. He, along with most of the Avengers, was confused at where this was going.

"Yeah, they did." Stephanie turned over the watch in her hands again. "And then the pocket watch became my brother's."

Tony's eyes widened as he pieced together what Stephanie was getting at.

"You mean-" Tony began.

"Yes."

* * *

"He's not going to be happy." A man in a camouflage body suit remarked to another man in an identical suit.

"Not my fault, Jackson. Ford let her get away."

"The bitch _stabbed_ me with her fucking _keys_!" A third man, presumably Ford, spoke up from his position on the gurney. Blood had seeped through his suit, resulting in a stain below the waist. "Scott shoulda dealt with her."

"I _had _her, you ass. But then the archer showed up." Scott made a face which showed how deep his contempt for anything remotely related to the Avengers stemmed.

"You're both lucky I saved your asses." The first man, Jackson, spoke. "We better go. If we're late, he'll be pissed. Where are the others?"

"He only wanted to see us." Scott answered. "He said only the ones who dealt with the girl."

"That can't be good." Ford muttered.

"Shut up, Ford."

"Screw you, Scott."

The three men continued to argue over whose fault it was as they made their way to the office. _His _office.

They hesitated at the door, before deciding that being late would just make him more furious.

"Y-You wanted to see us?" Jackson broke the silence once they had entered in the office.

The room was dimly lit, adding to the foreboding feeling that Scott, Ford, and Jackson all had. They all knew what had happened in his office before. The things that happened when he didn't get what he wanted.

This time, he had wanted the woman.

A tall man with broad shoulders sat behind an expensive-looking, black wood desk. Various screens showing angles from different security cameras emitted additional light.

"You couldn't even bring her in. Pathetic." The man behind the desk sneered.

"She was a bit more trouble than expected." Scott hesitantly said.

"She stabbed me!" Ford said, gesturing to the large stain of blood on his suit.

The man smirked. "She did the world a service saving us from you procreating."

Ford was at a loss for words, so he just stared at the man dumbfounded.

"I know what happened, you imbeciles." The man brought up footage of what had happened on one of the monitors. "I guess the old adage is right. If you want something done right, do it yourself."

None of the men knew how to respond.

"Jackson."

"Yes, sir?"

"Leave the room. You're the only one who didn't fuck things up too much."

Jackson, who was obviously relieved, hurried out of the office without glancing back at Scott or Ford.

"You two leave me in a position."

"A position?" Ford spoke up, glancing sideways at Scott.

"Which one of you to kill, that is. Both of you are equally responsible for not bringing her to me."

That's what he wanted them to think. Having them fail had been his plan all along.

"Sir, we did-" but Scott's protest was cut short by the sound of a gun firing.

Well, the gun firing _and_ the fact that he now had a bullet lodged where some of his brain matter used to be.

"Hm. Easier decision than I thought."

Ford stared at the man behind the desk who hadn't even batted an eye before killing Scott.

"Well?" The man spoke. "Get him out of my office before his blood stains the floor or you'll be joining him."


	21. Ashes

**I apologize for the amount of time it took to publish this chapter. I've been buried under a pile of course work for the past couple of weeks and didn't have any time to write. **

**Also, I was wondering what you guys would think about a companion story to Mathematical Proofs that would involve Clint. The idea has been running through my mind for a while now...**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 21. Ashes**

"He has to be here, then." Stephanie said to herself as she absentmindedly turning the watch over in her hands.

"Or someone from your world is." Tony acknowledged.

"Your world?" Natasha raised an eyebrow.

"It's him."

"Are you sure?"

"It has to be. It's his watch. He never went anywhere without it."

"But the explosion."

Stephanie hesitated. "He was testing the original Oryx when the explosion occurred. It was the first time that it was used with actual people."

"Must've worked."

"Must have."

"I am confused." Thor said while looking between Stephanie and Tony.

Stephanie stopped fiddling with the pocket watch and looked up to face the rest of the Avengers. "I think that it's time I tell you a little more about myself."

* * *

"Sir?" Jackson faintly knocked on the door. He could hear the muffled sound of Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C-sharp Minor playing in the office. A chill crept slowly up his spine when he remembered that Rachmaninoff had composed the song to depict a man being buried alive.

"What?" came the harsh reply from the other side of the door.

Jackson opened the door a crack, casting a silver of light from the hallway to fall upon the man's desk.

"We're ready when you are, sir."

* * *

"So you're from an alternate universe." Natasha reiterated for the tenth time after Stephanie had revealed her secret.

"Yes." Stephanie confirmed. "I'm not crazy, just a physicist."

While she was revealing her secret, Stephanie had glanced at Bruce to see his reaction. Surprise and then hurt had flickered on his face before he managed to compose himself, causing her to feel a pang of sorrow for not telling him earlier.

It also didn't escape her notice that Steve had yet to speak to her or acknowledge her presence.

"And your brother, who was a physicist, tested out the device-thingy." Clint said aloud to try and grasp what Stephanie had just told him. "But the device worked, and that's why he survived -because it brought him here."

Stephanie nodded. "Exactly."

"Wait, you said that it was the first time that you tested it on humans?" Bruce spoke up, looking disheveled but still adorable with his stubble, and wrinkled white t-shirt and jeans.

"We tested it on other animals at first. Mice mostly, but we worked our way up to larger animals."

"Larger animals?"

"Did you ever have a lion loose in Manhattan?" Stephanie answered with a question.

"So what was the purpose of it?" Pepper finally spoke up from her spot beside the right side of the bed.

"It was supposed to be for nuclear warfare."

"How?"

"It was suppose to get rid of the weapons of other countries, to put them in a black hole so to speak. We had plans to alter the device so that if we just knew the coordinates of something, we could send it to the other dimension. But something changed -the technology firm I worked for, Pyper Industries, wanted to see if we could travel to these alternate dimensions."

"So how come your brother volunteered to go?"

"He didn't, but it was decided that I would go. A military escort was going to go as well since we didn't know what to expect in the dimension. On the day before testing, I came down with food poisoning. Atticus went ahead with the testing without telling me. He had never wanted me to go in the first place."

"But why send one of you when you were the only two who knew about the device?" Pepper further questioned.

"We were the only two who understood the device, so we should have been able to figure out how to get back."

"If you didn't die." Natasha sarcastically said.

"We weren't stupid. Some of the animals that we tested later on had electronic chips implanted in them. We learned that they survived the switch to this dimension without their health or brain activity altered."

"What about the military guy that tested out Oryx 1.0 with your brother? Why haven't you mentioned the possibility that he's here?" Tony questioned.

A look of sadness washed over Stephanie's face for a brief moment.

"Bone ash was found at the lab. DNA analyses confirmed that it was his."

"But they never found any ash belonging to your brother?" It was evident to everyone that Natasha remained skeptical about Stephanie.

"Yes, they said that they never recovered any bone ash that matched my brother's DNA profile," She looked at Natasha directly in the eyes when she said this. "I was sure that he had died -the explosion caused a fire to break out. The testing facility burned to the ground…It makes sense now why they never found anything. He ended up here."

"But why has your brother been living in the woodlands?" Thor asked.

"I…I don't know."

Clint opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it.

"What?" Stephanie directed at Clint.

"What?"

"What were you going to say?"

"Nothing."

"Yes. You were going to say something -you opened your mouth and then closed it."

"I was just yawning."

"That wasn't a yawn."

Clint hesitated.

"Tell me, Clint."

"Do you…do you think that that your brother wants…to hurt you?"

"What? Hurt me? Why would he want to hurt me? You've got to be joking!"

"He's been stranded here for three years."

"So?"

"He might resent you for that since you were the one who was suppose to go..."

"Atticus isn't like that!" Stephanie defended her brother, raising her voice. "There has to be some reasonable explanation why we found his pocket watch in the forest. An explanation that doesn't involve Atticus wanting to seek revenge on me!"

"You can never really know someone completely." Natasha quietly remarked.


	22. Piranhas

**Expect another chapter soon! **

* * *

**Chapter 22. Piranhas**

It had been seven hours since she had told the rest of the Avengers her secret. Overall, it had gone better than Stephanie had thought it would. She had even overheard Clint make Natasha swear that she would not to mention Stephanie's secret to Fury.

The downside was that it had been seven long hours in which neither Bruce nor Steve had attempted to talk with her. Both of them had left the room especially quickly once the impromptu meeting ended. This didn't come as a surprise, but at the same time, she still felt hurt. _Oh well_, she thought, _at least they didn't have me committed to the psychiatric ward when I told them that I could travel through the dimensions of space and time_.

Stephanie was currently lying on her back staring up at the ceiling of her room. She sighed and continued to stare at the ceiling, contemplating what to do. Since the moonlight had first shone in through her window, she had been thinking about if she should go try and talk to Bruce and Steve and what she would say if she did. _Sorry I almost got you killed, Steve. No. Try again. Sorry I lead you into a forrest where there was a possibility that we would have been mauled by bears, but instead of being mauled by bears there was a group of men that beat you up and tried to kidnap me? Nope. Still doesn't sound quite right. _

Stephanie sighed, and rolled over to look at the digital clock on her night stand. 3:27am. She hadn't been able to sleep. Every time she tried closing her eyes for more than a few minutes, images of her attack flashed in her mind causing her to awake in a panic.

Absentmindedly she tapped her fingers against the table while she debated if she should get out of bed or not. She was hungry, the last time that she had something to eat was twelve hours ago, plus she needed a hot shower.

After a couple more minutes of debating, she got out of bed and headed towards the en suite washroom to take a shower hoping that it would help her to relax.

As steam from the show began filling up the large marble-tiled bathroom Stephanie began to think about the other pressing issue on her mind, that Atticus is still alive and he's in this world.

She adamantly believed that Atticus was not involved with what had happened in the forest, but Tony and the others remained skeptical. She had to be missing something, some crucial piece of information, but she couldn't figure out what it was.

Stepping out of the shower, Stephanie examined her body in the full length shower had helped. Her long wavy dark brown hair no longer felt greasy, and her eyes looked somewhat less tired. She noticed that the cut that she had sustained when she was on the SHIELD aircraft had become a small scar on her left arm. Recent large purplish bruises from the attack in the forest had started to form on her thighs, as well as some smaller bruises around her wrist and neck. Some of her fingernails were chipped. The injection site of the sedative on her thigh was clean, and looked as if it would heal quickly. Someone, most likely Pepper, had already bandaged it. She realized how lucky she had been. It could have been much, much worse.

* * *

The kitchen was dark except for the faint glow of the digital clocks on the microwave and on the stove. She walked over to the fridge to look for some leftovers. She kept the light off; she didn't want anyone to know that she was up since that would lead to them to asking her if she was all right. _I'm fine. I am not traumatized, I don't have post-traumatic stress disorder. I just can't sleep because there are a million thoughts buzzing around my brain about my brother...And Steve. And also Bruce. And the fact that it's too quiet in the house bothers me. I never minded silence before but now I'm too busy thinking about if someone is out there watching me or -_

"You okay?" a voice came from behind Stephanie, startling her and causing her to throw the jar of pickles that she had been holding up in the air.

In the light coming from the open refrigerator, Stephanie saw Clint get off of the chair that he was sitting on near the kitchen island and catch the jar before it hit the ground in one fluid motion .

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." Clint apologized while handing Stephanie the jar of pickles.

"It's fine. I-I just didn't know that you were here."

Clint nodded.

"So, what are you doing up?"

"Pie."

"Huh?"

Clint turned on the kitchen light revealing a half-eaten pie sitting on the dark marble top of the kitchen island. "I had a craving for pie."

Clint went to sit down at the island and Stephanie joined him.

"Where'd you get the pie?"

"Fridge."

"Wait. This is one of the pies that Tony ordered from France? The pies that he told us specifically not to eat or he would, and I quote, ''dunk us into a tank full of piranhas and watch them eat our eyeballs'."

"Yeah."

"You know that he's going to kill you if he finds out."

Clint looked at Stephanie, down at the half-eaten pie, and then back at Stephanie.

"I won't tell if you won't." He said, sliding a fork towards Stephanie.

She hesitated for a second before grabbing the fork.

So," Stephanie began after a bite of pie. "Are you mad at me?"

"Mad?"

"Yeah, you know, for not telling you about how I ended up here and stuff?"

Clint shrugged and took another bite of pie. "Everyone has secrets."

"I know. I just feel bad for not telling you sooner."

"Why?"

"Because you're one of my closest friends here. And you told me things about you...like what happened in Budapest."

Clint paused, his fork still midway between his mouth and the plate, and looked at Stephanie. "What's bothering you is not that you told me about it now. It's that you're upset that telling us might have changed everyone's opinion about you, isn't it?"

Stephanie shrugged and decided that the pie tray was more interesting than Clint. slightly averted her eyes from Clint.

She could feel Clint continuing to stare at her.

"Yeah, okay. Fine. You're right."

Clint smiled before biting the large chunk of piece that was balancing on his fork.

"So has it?"

"Has it what?"

"Changed your opinion of me."

Clint scratched the back of his head for a second while he thought about it. "Kind of."

"Kind of?"

Clint shrugged.

"Is that a good or bad 'kind of'?"

"A good one."

"Okay." Stephanie decided not to press him further. "You know, you were surprisingly insightful just then."

"I observe."

"Have you observed how Bruce and Steve aren't talking to me?" Stephanie remarked as she bit down on her fork.

"Steve doesn't seem angry. He just seems…"

"Hurt? Offended? Pissed off that I almost ended up getting us killed?"

Clint speared a piece of pie with his fork. "Why don't you talk to them?"

"Because I'm afraid of what they might say."

"What's the worst that could happen?"

"That is such a cliché."

Clint smiled. "Answer the question."

"They could tell me that they never want to see me again. Or worse, that they're disappointed in me for not telling them sooner."

"I don't think they'd do that." Clint held back the little tidbit about how Steve had confessed his love of Stephanie to the rest of the Avengers while she was unconscious.

"Didn't you see them after I told everyone about my secret? They couldn't get out of the room fast enough. Bruce almost hit the door frame and Steve almost tripped over a chair because they were in such a hurry to leave!"

Clint shrugged. "They care about you. We _all _care about you."

"Yeah." Stephanie sighed, not sounding 100% convinced.

"You know I'm right."

"I guess."

"You know I'm always right."

"Yeah, just like how you were "right" about going into the air vent that one time."

"That was a freak accident."

"Whatever, cupcake boy."

"I like pie too."

Stephanie smiled at Clint. "Thanks."

"For what?"

"Knowing what to say."

"Anytime," Clint smiled back. "Now let's get rid of the evidence that we were ever here and ate Tony's pie."

"Okay. I'll put some stuff over the pie tin so that it's not noticeable."

"Amateur."

"What? Why?"

"We should wash our finger prints off of the tin and forks first, and then put the empty pie tin in a trash can near Thor's room."

"Clint! You would incriminate Thor?!"

"I like to reduce the chances of getting my eyeballs mauled at by piranhas whenever possible."

* * *

When Stephanie returned to her room, she saw that Steve was there, his back facing towards the door. She paused and thought about turning around, but then remember what Clint had told her.

"Hi, Steve."

He immediately turned around at the sound of her voice.

"You're all right." He exhaled a breath that he didn't know he had been holding.

"Yeah, I just went to get something to eat." Stephanie had dumbly gestured to the hall behind her.

"I just…I thought that something had happened." Steve admitted. "You weren't sleeping in the bed when I passed by to check on you."

"No. I just went to get something to eat." Stephanie repeated, unsure of what to say. She still thought that he was furious with her for almost getting them both killed.

Both of them stared at each other for what seemed like a long time, but was only a few seconds.

"I'msorryIalmostgotuskilledplea sestopbeingmadatme." Stephanie quickly said, breaking the silence.

A puzzled expression came over Steve's face. He had only been able to make out a few words: 'sorry', 'killed', and 'me'.

"I'm sorry that I was stupid enough to make you take me into the forrest, thinking that I could outsmart whatever it was that was hiding in there…" Stephanie reiterated more slowly.

"You didn't _make _me go into the forrest with you. I _offered_."

"Yes, but-"

"No. It was my fault." Steve admitted. "I left you alone." His anger with himself was apparent as he spoke.

"You did that to protect me."

"Look how well that turned out." Steve mumbled and diverted his gaze from Stephanie.

Stephanie touched Steve's right upper arm. "It wasn't your fault."

He turned to look at the hand that she placed on his arm.

"So…you're mad at me because I never told you the truth about how I started working for Tony?"

"I'm not angry with you for not telling me."

"What? Why?" Stephanie asked surprised.

"You understand what it's like."

"Suddenly finding yourself in a world that seems kind of familiar, but isn't?"

Steve nodded.

"So…you're not mad at me then?"

"No. Why would I be angry with you?"

"But you didn't look at me."

"Pardon?"

"When I regained consciousness. You didn't look at me."

"I…I felt ashamed."

"Ashamed? Why?"

"You were attacked because I left you alone. It was my fault that you were almost kidnapped."

"Steve, you only left because you thought someone else was in trouble and wanted to help. You're noble like that. Besides, you couldn't have possibly predicted what happened out there."

"I co-"

"No, Steve. Stop beating yourself up over this. You're safe. I'm safe. Okay?"

"Okay."

"Good." Stephanie said before she yawned.

"You should get some rest." Steve looked at her concerned.

"I'm not that tired."

Stephanie avoided looking at Steve and started picking at a loose thread on her t-shirt.

"You're having nightmares, aren't you?"

Stephanie looked up at him. "H-how did you know?"

"About the attack?" Steve asked, ignoring her question.

"Yes. I keep thinking about when the second guy came and…" She trailed off.

"You need to sleep."

She bit her lip. "I'm kind of…afraid to."

"I'll stay with you."

"You don't have to."

"I want to."

"…Okay. Thank you."

Stephanie slipped into the bed, pulling the covers up to just above her waist, while Steve sat in the armchair next to her bed.

"Steve, if you want, you can sleep in the bed with me." Stephanie said hesitantly, looking at him with her head resting on her arm as she was laying down on her side. "But, I mean, if you don't want to that's fine. I just thought that you would be more comfortable with me…I mean, more comfortable in the bed." Stephanie added when it popped into her head that, since Steve grew up in a different era, he probably wasn't used to sharing a bed with a woman who wasn't his wife.

Steve smiled. He had sat down in the armchair because, although he had fallen asleep in bed with Stephanie before, it had been by accident. He hadn't been sure if…well, if she wanted him to share a bed with her.

But now he knew.


	23. Text Messages

**A lot of you have been asking me who Stephanie is going to end up with. I would tell you, but then it would ruin the surprise. **

* * *

**Chapter 23. Text Messages**

It was morning when Pepper decided to check on Stephanie. Pepper assumed that since it was still early morning combined with the fact that Stephanie would need rest to recuperate from yesterday's events, Stephanie would still be sleeping. However, what she didn't expect was that Steve would be sleeping in Stephanie's bed, with his arm positioned around her waist and his head gently resting above her's.

Quietly, Pepper closed the door and backed out into the hallway. She saw Tony coming towards her.

"Hey, Pep. Is she still sleeping?" He nodded towards Stephanie's door.

"Yes. I think it's best if we let her rest for a few more hours."

"Bruce said to give her this," He held up and shook a bottle of pills. "He said it would flush out the rest of the sedative from her body."

"Can it wait until she wakes up?"

Tony shook his head.

Tony discovering that Steve was asleep with Stephanie was not something that Pepper wanted to deal with before she had her morning coffee. Stephanie was like a little sister to Tony, and combined with him and Steve's conflicting personalities, Tony finding out that Steve had spent the night with Stephanie would most likely equal shouting and perhaps a few punches being thrown.

"All right. I'll give them to her." She held out her hand for the pill bottle.

Tony smiled. "You're hiding something. What is it? Pet monkey? Leprechauns? Don't tell me Bruce is in there with her." He wiggled his eyebrows at the last part.

Pepper rolled her eyes. "Everything is fine. But you have an interview in half an hour that you need to get to."

"Since when am I ever on time?"

"Tony."

He slipped past her and walked into Stephanie's room.

"WAKEY, WAK- WHAT THE HELL?"

Steve's eyes had shot open when he first heard Tony yelling and he was sitting up on the bed, ready to fight off an attacker. Stephanie, who was used to living with Tony, just put a pillow over her head and mumbled for Tony to "suck it" because she was sleeping.

"What is Captain Underpants doing in your room?!" Tony gestured to Steve who was glaring at Tony and only wearing a white t-shirt and boxers.

"Why are you here, Stark?"

"Get out." Tony directed towards Steve; they were glaring at each other.

"You get out."

"No, you."

"It's Stephanie's room."

"It's _my _house."

"Tony." Pepper warned, appearing in the doorway.

"Get out _now_, Steve."

"It's too early to deal with you and Steve bickering like old ladies." She turned to Steve and said 'sorry' before she continued. "What do I owe the pleasure of Tony Stark bursting into my room at," she checked the alarm clock on the nightstand, "8:13 in the morning."

"Bruce said that you need to take these to flush out the rest of the sedative." He tossed the pill bottle towards her, but still continuing to glare at Steve.

Stephanie caught it with one hand.

"How many?" Stephanie asked while examining the pills inside the clear bottle.

"One every three hours for the next three days."

She nodded.

"Anything else?"

"Tell him to get out of your room."

"No."

"Tell him or you're fired."

"Then I resign and am going to try to sleep a little more before breakfast."

Tony looked at Steve before leaving. "This better not happen again." He said with his jaw clenched.

"I tried to stop him from coming in." Pepper apologized before following Tony out of the room, most likely to chastise him for behaving like an ill-behaved four year-old who sees someone else playing with a toy he wants.

"Is he always like that?" Steve asked, turning to Stephanie once they were alone.

"Pretty much." She smiled at Steve. "Sadly, I've become used to it."

* * *

"Can you believe it?! He tells everyone that he loves her and the next day I find the two of them in bed together!" Tony was complaining to Bruce about what had happened in the lab.

"Wait, he told everyone that he loves her? Does Stephanie know?" Bruce glanced up briefly before returning his gaze to the computer.

"No. It was when you hulked out and she was still unconscious. I mean, if it was you with her instead of Steve, I wouldn't have minded. But Steve! _Steve_! What does she see in that goody two-shoes, bossy-"

"Tony." Bruce cut-off Tony without having to look up from the computer screen. He kept on telling himself that he was fine with Stephanie being with Steve. Completely fine. So completely and utterly fine that it didn't bother him at all.

Okay.

So maybe it bothered him a little. But it's not like he had been dating Stephanie or had even told her how he felt about her.

"As if it doesn't bother you, too." Tony huffed in response.

"It's none of my business. And it's none of yours."

"You can't still be mad at her not telling you?" Tony was referring to Stephanie's dimension hopping secret.

"I-"

But Tony cut Bruce off mid-sentence.

"What we need to do is get you and her alone together and-"

"No. I want no part in this, Tony."

"But-"

"No. You and I are not creating some scheme."

"We both know that you like her. I've seen the way you look at her."

Bruce remained silent, hoping that if he ignored Tony his schemes would somehow disappear.

"Fine." Tony pretended to sulk. Bruce had said that _he_ didn't want to be apart of it, but he never said that Tony couldn't do it by himself.

* * *

"Right. So, now just click on send to send the message."

"Okay."

As soon as Steve had hit send, Stephanie's phone beeped signalling that she had a text. Steve and Stephanie were sitting at the kitchen island, both with cell phones in their hands. Stephanie had decided that Steve should learn how to text.

"So, that's basically it. You can send pictures in the messages as well-"

"Ooooh are you teaching Steve sexting?" Clint had walked into the kitchen, grabbed a cookie, and sat down beside Stephanie.

"Shut up, Clint." She smiled at him.

"What's sexting?" Steve asked.

"I, too, have not heard of this Midgardian form of communication." Thor bellowed. He was sitting at the breakfast table eating pop tarts.

"Since Clint brought it up I think he should be the one to explain it."

"I would," Clint said while chewing a bite of his cookie. "but I have to go meet Natasha."

He smiled at Stephanie as he left the kitchen. Both Steve and Thor's gaze were now focused on her waiting for her to explain sexting.

"Uhm," Stephanie tried to think about how to explain what sexting was to a soldier who had been frozen in ice for sixty years and a god.

* * *

"So, what were you doing with Steve this morning?" Pepper asked Stephanie. Both of them were in Pepper's home office; Pepper was behind her desk and Stephanie was on the white couch that was on the left side of the room.

"We weren't sexting if that's what you're thinking."

"What?"

"Aren't we talking about how I had to explain to Steve and Thor what 'sexting' is?"

"No…Wait, why did you have to explain 'sexting'?"

"Clint's fault." Stephanie answered. She was laying down on the couch, dangling her grey vintage-looking Nikes over its edge.

"That must have been interesting." Pepper smiled.

"Steve just sat there the whole time blushing while Thor kept on asking questions. The worst part was when Thor bellowed 'BUT HOW CAN YOU SEE THE SEXUAL PICTURES WITH SUCH TINY SCREENS?'"

Pepper laughed

"So, what were you asking about then?"

"Why Steve was sleeping in your bed this morning."

"Oh."

Pepper continued to wait for an answer.

"I just couldn't sleep last night because I kept on thinking about what happened, so Steve said that he would stay with me so that I wouldn't be afraid. It's nothing."

"Does Steve know that it's nothing?"

"Does Tony know that it's nothing?" Stephanie countered.

"Steve was in his boxers."

"He had on a t-shirt as well."

Stephanie glanced at Pepper from her position on the couch and saw the look that she was giving her.

"He took off his pants so that he would be more comfortable when he slept."

"Is that all that happened?"

"Yes. We didn't have sex if that's what you're thinking!"

"Okay."

"Nothing happened. Same as when I fell asleep with Bruce on the couch."

"I bel-…You fell asleep with Bruce, too?"

Stephanie paused.

"I realize how this makes me sound."

"You have to choose."

"Choose?"

"If you want to be with Bruce or Steve."

"What?"

"Stephanie. You can't just keep leading them on."

"I'm not! …Am I?"

"You fell asleep with both of them in the span of two days."

"I-…Yeah, okay, but to be fair, I am a physicist so this is kind of new to me."

"They both really like you."

"Yeah…"

"They do."

"Well, Bruce isn't even talking to me since I told everyone about what happened."

"Did you try to talk with him?"

"…No."

"Why not?"

She shrugged. "I don't know."

"I think you know."

"You're starting to sound like my mother."

"Then she is a smart woman."

"Fine. I'll talk with Bruce."

"Today."

"What?"

"You'll talk with Bruce today."

"You can't rush these things."

"Stephanie."

"I'll talk with Bruce today." She sighed.

"Good. JARVIS, where is Dr. Banner?"

"He is currently in the library, Miss Potts." JARVIS' voice sounded.

"Thank you, JARVIS."

"I guess I'm going to go to the library, then. But I'm going because I want to and not because you want me to." Stephanie smiled as she got off the couch. Pepper returned her smile.

"Let me know how it goes."

Stephanie nodded and headed towards the door.

"Stephanie."

"Yes?" She turned back towards Pepper.

"Do you know who ate one of Tony's pies?"

"Uh, pies?"

"The ones he ordered from France. He went to have a slice today, but the pie was gone."

"Uh nope. I don't know anything about that. I'll see you later."

"See you later. Have a good talk with Bruce." Pepper smiled.

* * *

As Stephanie was heading towards the library, she decided to text Clint.

_I think they're on to us._

Clint texted her back almost right away. _Huh?_

_3.14_

_What r u tlking about?_

_PIE you idiot_

_:O Did u tell?_

_No did u?_

_No_

_OK_

_Okay_

_Tlk l8tr?_

_Yep_ Stephanie texted back before running into someone.

"Berlin."

"Oh, hey Tony. Sorry about that. I guess people shouldn't text and walk either."

"Where's Capsicle?"

"Don't call him that."

"Why not?"

Stephanie ignored him and answered his previous question. "I'm not sure where Steve is."

"I need you to check some calculations in the lab."

"I thought I resigned when you threatened to fire me this morning."

"You're re-hired."

"Doesn't work like that. I resigned -you didn't have a chance to fire me. I could come back, though, if certain demands were met…"

"What do you want?"

"I want you to stop calling Steve 'Capsicle'."

"I suggest you start looking for another job."

"Tony."

"Fiiine. Next time, ask for a raise."

"I'll do the calculations tomorrow. There's something I need to do; I'll see you later."

Stephanie spotted Bruce on the same couch where they had fallen asleep together a few nights before. Light was cascading in from the large bay window, over half of Bruce's face, causing Stephanie to smile.

"Hey." She said when she had climbed up the stairs to the second floor of the library.

He glanced up at her, looked at the door, and then back to her. "Hi."

"I know that this is awkward, and that you're probably mad at me for not telling you about how I met Pepper and Tony but-"

"I'm not mad."

Stephanie stared at him trying to figure out if Bruce was telling the truth.

"It's impressive that you created the device." He added.

"Thanks." Stephanie decided to change her approach. "It just seems like something is bothering you. You seemed like you couldn't get out of the room fast enough after I told everyone about the device."

Bruce remained silent, not sure which words to use to convey his thoughts.

Stephanie continued. "I think…I think that it's not so much how I got here that is bothering you, but the fact that, since you and everyone else were umm comic book characters in my world, I know some, uh, personal information about you. So…maybe you feel a little…vulnerable now, especially since we were starting to become close..."

He nodded. That was exactly what bothered him; he was someone who valued privacy -it was what kept him from being viewed as a specimen for S.H.I.E.L.D. or, worse, General Ross.

"What do you know about me from the comic books?"

"That you were married or engaged to Elizabeth Ross, your father killed your mother when you were very young, and umm, you attempted suicide but the Hulk spit out the bullet." Stephanie touched the back of her neck when she mentioned Bruce's suicide.

Bruce pursed his lips.

"I know I can't really make up for knowing all of this through comic books instead of you telling me about it yourself...But…I thought that…I thought that well, I could tell you some things about me that Tony and the others don't know…"

Bruce was surprised; he never thought that she would offer this.

"You don't have to."

She shrugged and sat down next to him on the couch. "I care about you, and I want to try and make up for the fact that I blindsided you with how I came here. You know that I would have told you eventually, though, right? About my secret and everything."

"Yes." And that was the truth.

A small, relieved smile spread across Stephanie's face. "So…As for stuff about me….Hmm…I was a pretty sheltered kid, so I don't have really juicy secrets...Uh, I cheated on a geography test in grade four and never got caught."

Bruce smiled. "You cheated on test?"

Stephanie nodded. "I wrote down answers on my hand with invisible ink. I also shaved off someone's eyebrow while she was asleep; she was my brother's girlfriend at the time and she cheated on him with someone else. I accidentally set someone's lawn on fire when I was younger. No one got hurt except for a few poor rose bushes. And like all teenagers, I had a fake ID. I kept in between the pages of my copy of _The Great Gatsby_…My father found it, though, so I guess that's not much of a secret..."

She paused before telling Bruce the next thing.

"No one knows this next thing about me in this world. Not even Tony." She took a breath. "You know how I said that the military escort accompanied my brother during the testing of the device?"

Bruce nodded unsure of where this was going.

"He was...he was my fiancé. We were engaged for six months before the….accident. I was twenty when I first started dating James, uh, that was his name."

Stephanie bit her lip waiting to see how Bruce would react.

"I'm sorry." He finally spoke. "I know how hard it can be to lose someone that you care about."

"Thanks."

Like Bruce, she didn't like to open up too much to someone, especially when discussing James. Bruce seemed to sense this and changed the topic.

"I got to the part where Boldwood proposes to Bathsheba." He told her and held up the book.

"What do you think so far?"

"It's good. I don't like Troy." Bruce was referring to Bathsheba's third suitor, a man who was in the military.

"Yeah, he's such a jerk. Gabriel was always my favourite."

"Mine too."

Stephanie's cell phone beeped.

"Oh, I have to take one of the pills that you gave Tony. I set an alarm to remind me...I'll see you at dinner, though?"

"Sure."

"Bruce?"

"Yes, Stephanie?"

"Thanks." She gave him a quick hug, and then left, leaving Bruce with a small smile on his face.

When she returned to her room, Stephanie left out a sigh of relief. She had been nervous about talking to Bruce, afraid that he would tell her that he never wanted to see her again or that he would have treated her differently.

As she took one of the small, white circular pills, she heard her cell phone beep. She reached for her cell phone and glanced at the screen, expecting the text to be from Steve or Clint, but what was on the screen caused her to freeze. Her eyes grew wide as she read the text from a blocked number.

_Stay away from Bruce for your own good_


	24. Captain Obvious

**Chapter 24. Captain Obvious**

* * *

"Just ask, Big Guy." Tony said to Bruce while he was working on something on a computer screen. He had sensed Bruce's stare on him for the past fifteen minutes.

"Did Stephanie, you know, uh actually have sex with Steve or was he just sleeping in her bed?" Bruce asked, blushing and looking down at the desk.

Tony looked up at him and grinned. "So you do care."

"It's just that I…" Bruce gave up trying to lie about why he would want to know. "Yes, I care."

"My reliable source says they didn't."

"How does Pepper know?"

"How do you know who my reliable source is?"

Bruce rolled his eyes.

Tony shrugged. "We can always ask Stephanie to be sure."

"What? No, we can't ask her that."

Just then, Stephanie walked into the lab looking a little shaken.

"Tony, did you send me a text message?"

"No. Did you have sex with Capsicle?"

"How is that even related to what I asked you?"

"It's not. Answer the question." He pointed a screwdriver at her.

"No, I didn't have sex with Steve."

"That's good." Bruce said aloud, causing Stephanie to look at him questioningly. "You know, because 50 percent of sexually active men and women will have a genital HPV infection at some point."

"Uh…Good to know." Stephanie said before turning her attention back to Tony. "So, you _didn't _send me an anonymous text message."

"If I sent you an anonymous text message, would I tell you?"

"Tony, I'm serious. I need to know."

Picking up on the stress and slight panic in Stephanie's tone of voice made Tony answer seriously. "No."

"I need help explaining this, then." She tossed her cell to Tony who caught it with one hand.

"'Stay away from Bruce for your own good'." Tony read aloud the text, and then looked at her.

"It actually says that?" Bruce took off his glasses and touched the bridge of his nose.

"Yeah. I got it five minutes ago from a blocked number. I thought…I hoped that it was Tony playing a prank or something."

"Were you with Bruce before you got it?" Tony questioned.

"No; I got it just after I left him to go to my room."

"We were in the library together, but no one who isn't in the house could have known that." Bruce added.

"Yeah…Wait. No. Someone else could have known."

"What do you mean?"

"We were in front of the giant window that looks out onto the forest. Someone could have seen us…"

Tony didn't look happy. "Did you try texting them back?"

Stephanie nodded. "It said that there was an error and my message can't be delivered."

"Look's like we're going to have to trace the number." Tony declared.

* * *

"I can't believe it." Stephanie said as she sat down on the floor. "It's been three hours, and we haven't gotten closer to figuring out who sent me the text message."

"Whoever sent it knows what they were doing." Bruce sighed and sat down beside Stephanie who put her head on his shoulder. Bruce smiled to himself when he smelled the familiar scent of her coconut shampoo.

"What are you three doing in here?" Pepper asked, walking into the lab. "You missed dinner."

"We were trying to figure out who sent me an anonymous text message." Stephanie told her, still sitting on the floor next to Bruce.

"It took you three hours to do that? What did the text say?"

"It warned her to stay away from me." Bruce said quietly.

Stephanie gently squeezed his hand, silently indicating that the mysterious text message wasn't his fault.

"So, who sent it?"

"We don't know."

"It's harder than you would think." Tony grumbled.

"They scrambled the signal." Bruce told Pepper.

"Well, I'll send down some dinner for you." Pepper told the three of them. "Oh, and Stephanie? Steve was asking about you at dinner."

"He was?"

Pepper nodded.

"You need to decide." Pepper added as she was walking down the hall.

"Decide what?" Tony and Bruce both asked Stephanie at the same time.

"Uh, nothing, just some girl thing." Stephanie quickly answered before turning her head to look at Bruce. "Do you have any crazy exes or something who are still in love with you and who are capable of sending anonymous, threatening text messages?"

Bruce shook his head. "I only really dated Betty."

"You think that her or her father could have sent me the text?"

"I doubt it."

"What about Steve?" Tony asked.

"You have got to be kidding me." Stephanie said looking up at Tony from where she was sitting on the floor. "Besides the fact that he just learned how to text, he would _never_ do something like that. He's not that type of man."

"Just a suggestion." Tony smirked.

"Maybe we could review the security footage to see if it caught anyone looking into the library." Stephanie suggested.

"Because that was so helpful last time." Tony sarcastically said, and shook his head. "If someone was watching you, it was probably one of the people from the attack and they already know how to outsmart the security cameras."

"Yeah, just like it was probably them who tampered with the video cameras when I first came here."

"I thought it was the energy that disrupted the footage." Tony looked a little confused.

"What are you two talking about?" Bruce looked confused.

"When Oryx turned on and brought me here, the energy source originated in your New York. Someone tampered with the security cameras in the area that we narrowed down the energy burst to, so we couldn't track down who turned it on." Stephanie explained.

"But how did you know that the cameras were purposefully tampered with?"

"When Fury was interrogating me, he mentioned that S.H.I.E.L.D. discovered that the cameras had been tampered with an hour or so before the 'event'. I thought I told you. Sorry."

"Fury interrogated you?" A voice from the doorway asked.

The three of them turned to see Steve who was wearing a navy blue t-shirt and jeans, and who was carefully carrying three plates loaded with food. Stephanie went over to help him with the plates, setting them on the closest desk, and answered his question.

"On the aircraft after you left; when I was in the medical wing. He thinks that I'm working for Hammer or Hydra or something."

"That's ridiculous!" Bruce said.

"Yeah, but I can't blame him for being suspicious. But, anyways, let's focus on the slightly threatening text and what we're going to do about it."

"Wait. You received a threat?" Steve's brows burrowed.

Stephanie showed him the text message.

"Who sent it?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out." Tony answered, annoyed at Steve.

Stephanie offered her hand to Bruce who was still sitting on the floor, helping him up. Both of them went to sit down at the desk where the food was.

"Whoever sent it is probably related to whoever kidnapped you in the forest." Steve suggested. He was now standing beside Stephanie.

"Thanks, Captain Obvious."

"Tony." Stephanie warned.

"Do you think Fury could have sent it? I don't think he likes the fact that I've been hanging around you guys, especially Steve." Stephanie suggested, shrugging.

"Psh," Tony spoke up, his eyes were now focused on the computer screen in front of him. "He's not _that _smart."

"What about Loki? He is the god of Mischief." Steve asked.

Stephanie considered it for a moment. "I don't think so. Thor only learned today was sexting was, so I doubt that he or Loki knows how to work a cellphone."

"Wait, how do you know that Thor learned what sexting is today?" Bruce asked.

"All you need to know is that Clint is a little weasel," Stephanie answered. "Who else is there, then?"

"Your brother." Tony said.

"No. Atticus would never do something like this."

"We found his pocket watch in the forest."

"Which only proved that his pocket watch somehow ended up there. He wouldn't hurt me."

"But-"

"Let's drop it."


	25. Quiz

**I had the urge to write today, so here is another chapter. It's kind of fluffly, but I think that it's really cute. **

**Enjoy, and thank you to everyone who reads and/or reviews! **

* * *

**Chapter 25. Quiz**

"You need a babysitter." Tony told Stephanie while they were sitting with the rest of the Avengers in the living room. Stephanie, Bruce, and Tony had left a program running in the lab to try and trace the number that the anonymous text was sent from, but so far, they had no luck.

"What?! I do not!" Stephanie exclaimed.

"I agree with Tony." Steve, who was sitting on Stephanie's right, voiced his opinion.

"Steve agrees with Tony? I never thought that I would hear those words." Clint remarked.

"Someone threatened you, Stephanie. I want to make sure that you're safe." Steve explained.

"I've been fine so far!…Well, I mean besides the forrest incident." Stephanie grudgingly acknowledged when Tony gave her a look.

"That settles it. You'll have babysitter." Tony declared.

"I do not understand. Why does Stephanie need someone who sits on babies?" Thor's voice bellowed throughout the living room.

"We just mean that someone should stay with Stephanie to make sure that nothing happens to her." Steve explained over Clint's laughter.

"I want someone with her 24/7." Tony added.

"Who gets the first shift?" Natasha asked from her position on the loveseat; she was sitting next to Clint who was shaking with silent laughter.

"I'll do it." Steve volunteered.

"After what happened when you watched over her last time? No, I don't think so." Tony said, causing Steve's expression to darken.

"I'd do it, but I think it would be best if Stephanie stayed away from me for a while…" Bruce acknowledged, frowning.

Stephanie, who had Bruce on her left, covertly grabbed Bruce's hand in her's. Bruce looked down at his hand in her's with the expression of a lovesick teenager.

"I'll do it." Clint said.

Tony nodded. "Alright. Clint gets the first shift. Someone will take over tomorrow morning."

* * *

"So, what do you want to do?" Clint asked Stephanie when they were alone in the living room.

"I don't know. What do you want to do?"

"I don't know…What do you want to do?"

Stephanie gave a small laugh. "Wow, it's like we're both seven."

Clint's eyes grew wide as a thought occurred to him. "We could build a pillow fort!"

"…Are you sure that I'm not the one babysitting you?"

"Think about it; it will be awesome! I haven't built one in forever!"

"Okay, but only if we can eat cookies in it once we're done building it?"

"Duh."

An hour later, and after using five chairs, the couch, loveseat, seven blankets and 52 pillows, Clint and Stephanie's fort was finally completed.

"This is epic!" Clint said as he munched on a cookie inside the fort.

"I have to say that this is one of the most impressive pillow forts that I've ever built."

Clint nodded. "Same. So, what's going on with you? I heard that you hooked up with Steve."

Stephanie laughed. "Tony is such a gossip! But no, I didn't hook up with Steve. He just slept in my bed -I was having nightmares and he stayed so that I would feel safe."

"Are you suuuuure that's all?"

"Are you sure that nothing is going on between you and Natasha?" Stephanie countered.

"What do you mean?"

"You'll figure it out eventually…I hope."

"You're weird."

"You're weirder."

"I didn't cross into a different dimension."

"Touché." Stephanie acknowledged. "But I did see you reading one of Pepper's girly magazines. So that's kind of weird."

"Why's that weird?"

"You look really intense whenever you read them."

"I wanted to know which Avenger I should marry!"

"Wait…What?"

"There was a quiz in the magazine…"

"And you took it?" Stephanie raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah."

"…But you're an Avenger."

"I wanted to see if I would get myself!"

"Did you?"

"No." Clint sulked.

"Who did you get?"

"I'm not telling."

"Clint, you have to now! You can't tell me that you took the quiz and then not tell me who you got!"

"I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours."

"I never took the quiz!"

"Take it now, then." Clint told her as he reached for another chocolate chip cookie.

"Fiiine. Where's the magazine?"

"Here." Clint pulled the magazine from his back pocket.

"You seriously kept it with you?"

Clint shrugged. "They had an article on what men really think of women's lingerie."

"There are so many sarcastic responses I could say to that that I'm not sure which one to choose from."

"Whatever," Clint opened the magazine and skimmed to the page that the quiz was on. "Ready?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Okay. Question 1: If you were an art project you would be: a) a picture made out of macaroni, b) a clay sculpture that looks like someone sat on it, c) a picture made by finger painting, d) a frame made out of popsicle sticks, or e) a necklace made from multi-coloured beads?"

"Is that seriously a question?"

"Yes. I chose 'A'."

"That is one of the stupidest questions that I have ever heard."

"Just choose."

Stephanie sighed. "'E'."

"Okay, next question. If you discovered an empty wallet on the sidewalk, you would: a) ask the people around you if they lost it, and if not, leave it in the same place, b) take it to the police or lost & found, c) take the wallet for yourself, d) take the wallet, but donate it, or e) throw the wallet into the garbage after you mistaken it for litter?"

"'B'."

"That's what I chose, too! Third question-"

"How many questions are there?"

"Nine."

"Ugh, fine. This has go to be the stupidest quiz I have ever taken."

"I bet you're secretly enjoying this, and that you can't wait to see who you end up with!" Clint laughed. "Okay, third question: if you could be a sandwich, you would be: a) a BLT, b) an extravagant sandwich with a variety of cold cuts, olives, and tapenades, c) a falafel, d) a grilled cheese, or e) a PB&J sandwich with chocolate sprinkles and bananas?"

"I really like grilled cheese sandwiches, so I guess 'D'. Which answer did you choose?"

"'B'. I like to eat."

"Yeah, that's not really a secret." Stephanie smiled at Clint.

"Question four: if you could have a pet, you would choose: a) a ferret, b) a boarder collie, c) a hamster with a white spot on its back named Speedy, d) a Siamese cat, or e) a miniature pig?"

"I like cats, but Siamese ones freak me out ever since I saw 'Lady & the Tramp' so I'll go with 'B'. Let me guess, you chose 'A'?"

"Pft, no. I chose 'C'. I've always wanted a hamster named Speedy."

"You keep on surprising me." Stephanie laughed while Clint turned the page to continue the quiz.

"Five: if you were an accessory, you would be: a) a tube of flashy red lipstick, b) black Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses, c) a plaid scarf, d) a motorcycle helmet, or e) a beret?"

"Definitely, 'B'. I love me my Ray-Bans. It took me like fifteen years to figure out that the name Ray-Ban refers to the fact that the sunglasses block sun rays. Get it? They ban the rays?"

"That makes so much sense!" Clint exclaimed. "…I went with the scarf."

"Why?"

"Sherlock Holmes wears one."

"And he is awesome."

"Yep. Okay, next question: it's Saturday night and you have a hot date. For shoes, you choose: a) a pair of black strappy stilettos, b) a pair of silver flats, c) your new pair of motorcycle boots, d) a cute pair of electric blue booties , or e) six-inch leopard print heels?"

"This one is hard to answer 'cause it would depend on a lot of things: the guy's height, where you're going…"

"I know. I spent fifteen minutes debating what to choose."

"I say this again: you're weird."

Clint flashed Stephanie a huge smile. "But you love me!"

"How could I not?" She laughed and playfully hit his shoulder.

"Okay, okay. So what do you think?"

"Uhm…I think I'll go with 'A'."

"Good choice. Next question: you're walking in an unfamiliar neighbourhood and come across a playground, you: a) play on the monkey bars, b) go on the swings and see if you can swing over the top of the swing set, c) climb on jungle gym, d) make sandcastles, or e) find someone else and go on the teeter-totter?"

"The first thing I'd do would be to go climb on the jungle gym and play the floor is lava, so 'C' it is!"

"I love that game; people don't play it enough!"

"I know! Once you become a teenager no one wants to play it with you…"

"We should play it sometime!"

"Yeah!"

"But first let's finish the quiz! Second to last question. It's your birthday! Yay! The cake that you want for the surprise party that you already knew about (but that you told the friends who are planning it that you don't know anything about), is: a) you're still deciding between an ice cream cake or a cake with rich buttercream frosting, b) a half chocolate, half vanilla sheet cake large enough to feed fifty people, c) a battenberg cake, d) croquembouche, or e) screw the cake -you want shots of vodka?"

"Let's go with 'C'. I've always wanted to try a battenberg cake."

"What is a battenberg cake?"

"It's a sponge cake that's covered in marzipan and has a cool two-by-two check pattern when cut."

"Oooh. Okay, last question: one of your coworkers is getting married. Yay! During the engagement party, you: a) make awkward small talk with people who don't know and don't care about, b) cry in the bathroom about how you'll never get married and end up alone with fifty-three cats, c) eat three pieces of cake while silently berating yourself for your sugar indulgence, d) get seriously competitive over party games and end up sending one of the future bridesmaids to the hospital with a sprained ankle, or e) make sure that the hostess has everything and offer to run to the store when the hostess runs out of Cheetos?"

"Those possible answers are ridiculous!"

"Just choose one then we can find out who you should marry!"

"Uhm…I'm going to say 'A' even though 'C' and 'E' could apply to me."

Clint nodded and calculated Stephanie's result. He looked up and smiled at her.

"Guess who you got!"

"…You?"

"Nope! Guess again!"

"Thor?"

"No! One last guess!"

"Please tell me that I didn't get Tony!"

"You didn't get Tony!" Clint laughed. "Give up?"

"Yeah. Who did I get?"

"Do you want to know?"

"Yes."

"Do you really want to know?"

"Yes."

"Do you really, really want to know?"

"Just give me my result, Clint!"

"Okay, okay. It's a tie between Steve and Bruce."

"Are you freaking serious?"

"Yep!"

"Ugh! I can't even decide between them when I'm taking a stupid quiz!"

"It's not stupid! It's pretty accurate!"

Stephanie crossed her arms. "If it's so accurate who did you get?"

Clint whispered something.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't hear that."

Clint whispered something again.

"Still couldn't hear that."

"THOR! THE QUIZ TOLD ME TO MARRY THOR, OKAY?!"

"Hahahahahaha! That's amazing!" Stephanie couldn't stop laughing.

"At least the quiz gave me a definite answer!"

"Hey!" Stephanie stopped laughing, and looked serious. "Not cool. There should be at least some tie-breaker question or something."

Clint shrugged. "What do you expect? It's a five dollar magazine."

"Well, I'm sure that you and Thor will make a lovely couple!" A smile slowly spread across Stephanie's face before she erupted into laughter again.

* * *

**I know that all of you are curious to see who you would get if you took the quiz that was in this chapter, so here it is! I made the quiz myself (so, obviously, it's mine and you need to ask before using it anywhere else/don't take credit for it). To take it, just choose which answer best describes you and then see which male Avenger's answers you chose the most of (i.e. if you chose answers that have Tony's name beside them, then Tony is your result) -the names are in the 'Answers' section below. Have fun!**

**Questions:**

**1. If you were an art project you would be:**

a) a picture made out of macaroni

b) a clay sculpture that looks like someone sat on it

c) a picture made by finger painting

d) a frame made out of popsicle sticks

e) a necklace made from multi coloured beads?

**2. If you discovered an empty wallet on the sidewalk, you would:**

a) ask the people around you if they lost it, and if not, leave it in the same place

b) take it to the police or the lost&found

c) take the wallet for yourself

d) take the wallet, but donate it

e) throw the wallet into the garbage, mistakenly thinking that it's litter?

**3. If you could be a sandwich, you would be:**

a) a BLT

b) an extravagant sandwich with a variety of cold cuts, olives, and tapenades

c) a falafel

d) a grilled cheese

e) a PB&J sandwich with chocolate sprinkles and bananas

**4. If you could have a pet, you would choose:**

a) a ferret

b) a boarder collie

c) a hamster with a white spot on its back named Speedy

d) a Siamese cat

e) a miniature pig

**5. If you were an accessory, you would be:**

a) a tube of flashy red lipstick

b) black Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses

c) a plaid scarf

d) a motorcycle helmet

e) a beret

**6. It's Saturday night and you have a hot date. For shoes, you choose:**

a) a pair of black strappy stilettos

b) a pair of silver flats

c) your new pair of motorcycle boots

d) a cute pair of electric blue booties

e) six-inch leopard print heels

**7. You're walking in an unfamiliar neighbourhood and come across a playground, you:**

a) play on the monkey bars

b) go on the swings and see if you can swing over the top of the swing set

c) climb on jungle gym

d) make sandcastles

e) find someone else and go on the teeter-totter?

**8. It's your birthday! Yay! The cake that you want for the surprise party that you already knew about (but that you told the friends who are planning it that you don't know anything about), is:**

a) You're still deciding between an ice cream cake or a cake with rich buttercream frosting

b) A half chocolate, half vanilla sheet cake large enough to feed fifty people

c) A battenberg cake

d) Croquembouche

e) Screw the cake, you want shots of vodka!

**9. One of your coworkers is getting married. Yay! During the engagement party, you:**

a) make awkward small talk with people who don't know and don't care about

b) cry in the bathroom about how you'll never get married and end up alone with fifty-three cats

c) eat three pieces of cake while silently berating yourself for your sugar indulgence

d) get seriously competitive over party games and end up sending one of the future bridesmaids to the hospital with a sprained ankle

e) make sure that the hostess has everything and offer to run to the store when the hostess runs out of Cheetos?"

**Answers**

**1. If you were an art project you would be:**

a) a picture made out of macaroni (Clint)

b) a clay sculpture that looks like someone sat on it (Thor)

c) a picture made by finger painting (Tony)

d) a frame made out of popsicle sticks (Steve)

e) a necklace made from multi coloured beads? (Bruce)

**2. If you discovered an empty wallet on the sidewalk, you would:**

a) ask the people around you if they lost it, and if not, leave it in the same place (Clint)

b) take it to the police or the lost&found (Steve)

c) take the wallet for yourself (Tony)

d) take the wallet, but donate it (Bruce)

e) throw the wallet into the garbage, mistakenly thinking that it's litter? (Thor)

**3. If you could be a sandwich, you would be:**

a) a BLT (Tony)

b) an extravagant sandwich with a variety of cold cuts, olives, and tapenades (Thor)

c) a falafel (Bruce)

d) a grilled cheese (Steve)

e) a PB&J sandwich with chocolate sprinkles and bananas (Clint)

**4. If you could have a pet, you would choose:**

a) a ferret (Clint)

b) a boarder collie (Steve)

c) a hamster with a white spot on its back named Speedy (Bruce)

d) a Siamese cat (Tony)

e) a miniature pig (Thor)

**5. If you were an accessory, you would be:**

a) a tube of flashy red lipstick (Tony)

b) black Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses (Clint)

c) a plaid scarf (Steve)

d) a motorcycle helmet (Thor)

e) a beret?" (Bruce)

**6. It's Saturday night and you have a hot date. For shoes, you choose:**

a) a pair of black strappy stilettos (Steve)

b) a pair of silver flats (Bruce)

c) your new pair of motorcycle boots (Thor)

d) a cute pair of electric blue booties (Clint)

e) six-inch leopard print heels?" (Tony)

**7. You're walking in an unfamiliar neighbourhood and come across a playground, you:**

a) play on the monkey bars (Thor)

b) go on the swings and see if you can swing over the top of the swing set (Tony)

c) climb on jungle gym (Bruce)

d) make sandcastles (Clint)

e) find someone else and go on the teeter-totter? (Steve)

**8. It's your birthday! Yay! The cake that you want for the surprise party that you already knew about (but that you told the friends who are planning it that you don't know anything about), is:**

a) You're still deciding between an ice cream cake or a cake with rich buttercream frosting (Thor)

b) A half chocolate, half vanilla sheet cake large enough to feed fifty people (Steve)

c) A batten berg cake (Bruce)

d) Croquembouche (Clint)

e) Screw the cake, you want shots of vodka! (Tony)

**9. One of your coworkers is getting married. Yay! During the engagement party, you:**

a) make awkward small talk with people who don't know and don't care about (Bruce)

b) cry in the bathroom about how you'll never get married and end up alone with fifty-three cats (Clint)

c) eat three pieces of cake while silently berating yourself for your sugar indulgence (Thor)

d) get seriously competitive over party games and end up sending one of the future bridesmaids to the hospital with a sprained ankle (Tony)

e) make sure that the hostess has everything and offer to run to the store when the hostess runs out of Cheetos?"(Steve)


	26. Doubt

**Chapter 26. Doubt**

From the doorway, Steve surveyed the room in front of him. What had once been the living room was now the home to a large fort constructed out of blankets, pillow, and what had once been Tony's comfortable sectional couch and matching love seat. Steve noticed that even Tony's large flat-screen had been subsumed by the fort.

Steve had a feeling that Clint had something to do with this, so it was no surprise when Clint's head popped up from an opening near the right side of the fort, reminding Steve of a gopher popping up from his burrow.

"Hey. Pretty sweet, huh? Stephanie and I even made it so that we could watch TV inside of the fort."

"Where_ is_ Stephanie?" Steve asked, stepping into a small sliver of space in the living room that had not been converted into a pillow fort.

"Kitchen."

Steve's eyes narrowed a little.

"She's not with you?"

"She just went to the kitchen to get more cookies."

Anger was slowly rising in Steve's chest.

"You're suppose to be watching her at all times, Clint!"

"Geez, sorry. I just wanted some more cookies."

"I don't want you to turn your back on her for a second." Steve ordered.

"She just went to the kitchen." Clint defended, crossing his arms.

"Clint."

"Okay, okay. I won't take my eyes off of her."

"Thank you."

"Why don't you just marry her already?" Clint mumbled to himself.

"Pardon?"

"Nothing." Clint responded before popping back into the fort.

* * *

Bruce had been vacantly staring out of the window when Stephanie walked in.

"Hey." She said quietly.

Bruce's hair was slightly disheveled due to running his hand through it so much while he was working in the lab. When he turned towards her, Stephanie noticed how worn out he looked.

"Hi."

He gave her a weak smile.

"I'm going to make some tea, would you like some?"

Bruce nodded. "Thank you."

"Where's Clint?"

"He's still in the pillow fort we built. We ate all of cookies we had in there, so he sent me to get some more. And by 'we' I mean 'Clint'."

Stephanie put the kettle on the stove, and leaned against the counter staring at Bruce.

"Any luck?" She asked, referring the Tony and Bruce's further attempts to find out who was behind the text message.

"We're trying a new decoding program, but nothing so far. Whoever sent it to you covered their tracks."

Stephanie nodded, mulling the possible senders of anonymous text message over in her mind. Whoever had sent her the text was clearly above intelligence, possibly had a degree in computer engineering, and had certainly done this before.

Her thoughts turned to Atticus. _He _had done his Masters in computer engineering before he decided to focus on physics. _He _had been to shown her how to send anonymous text messages, albeit not as sophisticated as the one that she had received. She bit her bottom lip. She wanted to completely reject the possibility that Atticus had anything to do with this, but all signs seemed to be pointing to him.

But why would Atticus have sent her the text? And if he did send the text, was it him who was behind the attack in the forest, too? Could Clint have been right when he said that Atticus might want to hurt her? Did he blame her for what happened with Oryx? For all she knew, he could have been the one who activated Oryx –he knew the device as well as she did.

"Stephanie?" This was the third time that Bruce had said her name.

"Huh?"

"The kettle is whistling."

"Oh!"

She quickly took the kettle off of the stove, and poured the boiling water into two mugs.

"What were you thinking about?" Bruce asked, looking at her with his large brown eyes.

"Nothing." She kept her back towards him, focusing instead on finding the tea. She felt guilty that she had doubted her brother, and didn't want Bruce's suspicion in Atticus to grow, which it undoubtedly would after learning that Atticus was a genius when it came to technology. "Is peppermint tea okay?"

"Yes." Bruce said, letting his question go for the moment.

Stephanie set a mug in front of Bruce before sitting across from him at the four-person pine table. She wrapped her hands around the mug, averting her eyes from Bruce's gaze.

"Stephanie."

She quickly glanced up at him before starting intently at her mug. The reality of what was going on, that Atticus was alive in this dimension and according to the other Avengers was trying to hurt her, had finally sunk in.

Bruce saw her lower lip tremble.

"What's wrong?"

She shook her head.

"You can tell to me."

"What if…what if Clint is right, and Atticus was behind the attack in the forest and the text messages? What if I'm wrong about Atticus?" She said quickly, revealing her thoughts to Bruce.

"I don't believe that Atticus is behind this." He comforted her.

"But how do you know?"

"I know how strongly you believe in him, and that's enough for me."

"Thanks." Stephanie gave a little smile. "It just…It just hit me that he's here. That he's alive. And I know that he would never hurt me, but it's just that everything's pointing to him. It's hard not…not to think about the possibility that he…" She trailed off, but soon continued again. "I'm his sister. I shouldn't have doubted…I should have trusted that he could never be behind any of this."

"Hey," He said gently. "It's okay."

Bruce went around to her side of the table, and sat down beside her, putting his arm around her.

Stephanie looked up at him. "Do you really believe that Atticus has nothing to do with this or were you just trying to get me to calm down? Be honest."

Bruce paused before speaking.

"It looks bad for him, but I don't think he did it. I don't think that he wants to hurt you."

Stephanie stared into his eyes for a few seconds before nodding, and put her head on his chest.

"Thanks."

The sound of Bruce's heartbeat and his familiar, slightly spicy, scent made her feel better.

The two remained close together for a few more minutes until JARVIS interrupted.

"Dr. Banner, Mr. Stark wants you in the lab."

Stephanie pulled slightly away from Bruce so that she could look at his face. "Do you think he managed to trace the number?" There was a hint of excitement in her voice.

"I hope so. I'll go-"

"I'm going with you." She interrupted. Bruce looked as if he was going to say something, but Stephanie spoke again. "If there's anything that Tony found, I want to hear it first."

Bruce nodded an okay knowing that there was no way that he could get her to change her mind.

"Clint! I'm going to the lab!" Stephanie yelled into the living room before grabbing Bruce's hand, leading him to the lab.

"What are you doing here? Where's Clint?" Tony questioned when he saw Stephanie step into the lab with Bruce.

"What did you find?" She asked, ignoring his queries.

Tony sighed. He didn't want Stephanie here to hear this –he didn't want her more worried than she already was.

"Tony, tell me."

"You got another text message."

"What?" Bruce and Stephanie exclaimed.

"It shouldn't come as much of a shock to you, seeing as how you two were together upstairs." He nodded towards their intertwined hands, smirking.

Bruce blushed, but didn't remove his hand. Neither did Stephanie.

"What did the new text message say?"

"_You'll get hurt if you stay near Bruce._"

* * *

**Oooh this is getting good, huh? I plan to have another chapter within a week. **

**Also, since a lot of you seemed to get a tie between two, or even three, Avengers I made a tie-breaker question. **

**Tie breaker:**** Your kindergarten teacher is most likely to remember you as the kid who…**

**a) Duct-taped another kid to the wall (Tony)**

**b) Always stood quietly behind her and scared the bejesus out of her when she turned around (Clint)**

**c) Sat on another kid for taking your purple crayon while you weren't paying attention (Thor)**

**d) Freed the class gerbils from their cage, on purpose, on at least three separate occasions causing pandemonium to ensue when the gerbils climbed up the teacher's pants, ate three students and the secretary's lunches, and taught the second graders about the birds and the bees when they ended up "getting it on" with the two gerbils in the room across the hall during math class (Bruce)**

**e) Accidentally super-glued your hand to the face of your kindergarten crush resulting in an embarrassing trip to the emergency room (Steve)**


	27. Lumberjack

**Hi. I want to apologize for the slow updates. To make up for it, I posted the longest chapter yet. Enjoy! **

* * *

**Chapter 27. Lumberjack**

Stephanie was staring at the digital clock on the nightstand beside the bed that read 2:39am. The pale red glow from the numbers shone across her face. It was almost five hours from when she had received the second message. The second text was as hard to trace as the first; after a frustrating four hours, Tony had made her to go sleep. Which is what she was trying to do; trying being the operative word. Beside her, Clint was snoring like a pack of giant wildebeests.

"Clint, shut up." Stephanie moaned, pulling a pillow over her head trying to drown out Clint's obnoxious snoring.

Stephanie and Clint had decided to spend the night in Clint's room just to be on the safe side. It was likely that whoever had sent Stephanie a text and ambushed her and Steve in the forest knew where her room was and was familiar with its layout was. Clint's room, however, was on the opposite side of the house, facing away from the woods which meant that no one hidden in the forest could watch them. Out of sheer stubbornness they ended up sharing Clint's bed since neither of them had wanted the other to have to sleep on the small couch in the room.

She turned over, but realized that Clint had taken the half of the comforter that had been hers.

Stephanie sighed, and felt sorry for Clint's future wife.

"Clint, you're hogging all of the blankets." She said loudly.

"My blankets." Clint mumbled in his sleep as he pulled them closer to his chest and turned over.

Stephanie rolled her eyes before she struggled to yank a blanket from Clint's grip. Finally succeeding after five minutes of tugging, she turned away from Clint and attempted to go to sleep.

Her eyes were fluttering closed when she felt Clint's feet kneading into her back.

"You've got to be kidding me." She complained, and started kicking his legs.

This ended up backfiring since Clint, who was still fast asleep, began kneading into her back more strongly, pushing her closer and closer to the edge of the bed.

"Clint, you raccoon! Stop kicking me!" Stephanie hissed at Clint before he unconsciously pushed her with his legs, sending her over the edge of the bed. She had landed on the sheepskin rug on the floor, which had softened her twenty-five inch fall a little.

She glared up at Clint in the bed. He was now spread out on his stomach, snuggling with the blanket that she wretched from his ironclad grasp mere minutes ago.

Deciding that she wasn't going to get any sleep if she stayed, and might be driven to murder if Clint pushed her off of the bed again, Stephanie decided to go to the lab. Before leaving, she stuck a Post-It note on Clint's forehead telling him where she would be.

Out in the hallway, she began to head in the direct of Bruce's room to see if he was still awake and was up for another round at cracking the anonymous text messages. She was had passed three rooms before stopping. If she went to Bruce's room, she would be setting herself to receive another anonymous text message, or even worse, it would further upset whoever was sending her the text messages, causing them to do something more harmful than text messages.

She turned towards the elevator, thinking that it would be best to leave Bruce out of it for now. _Besides_, Stephanie thought, _he's probably sleeping_. However, unknown to her, Bruce was pacing in his room thinking about a list of possible people from his past who would have a motive to send the anonymous text messages to Stephanie.

The lights in the lab were still on, illuminating the metal surfaces of the desks, when Stephanie entered Tony's lab. However, the lab was deserted. Stephanie noticed that either Tony or Bruce had left a program running that was attempting to decipher the number from which the text messages were sent.

Slumping into a chair Stephanie pulled up the work that Tony and Bruce had done so far and glanced over it. Their programs were flawless, but they still had no success in decrypting the number. She absentmindedly drummed her fingers on the desk thinking about a new way to approach the problem.

She reviewed the facts that she had so far. Someone had sent her two text messages. There didn't seem to be a secret meaning behind the words of the text message; it seemed clear that someone had wanted her to stay away from Bruce. The two text messages were sent after she had been with Bruce. Right after she had been with Bruce. But how could someone have been in the forest watching her all of the time. Unless…

Stephanie left that thought hung in air as she tied her hair up and began to work on the new idea that was starting to form in her mind.

"Why aren't you in bed?" A man's shadow loomed over her.

Stephanie's head snapped up from what she was working on. A sense of panic had flooded her for a brief second until she realized that it was Tony who was standing in front of her.

"Why aren't you?" She remarked, hoping that Tony hadn't sensed her brief uneasiness when he had caught her off guard. Having a babysitter was bad enough; she didn't want Tony to know that he was justified in having someone watch over her.

Tony crossed his arms over his chest. Stephanie could make out of the faint glow from his arc reactor from under his black t-shirt.

"I mean it, Berlin." He walked over and sat down on the stool across the table from her.

"Clint sleeps like a hybrid of an annoying toddler who kicks in his sleep and a hibernating bear, so I decided to come down to the lab since it didn't seem likely that I'd be sleeping tonight anyways."

"Discover anything?"

She shook her head. "Not yet. I started to think about if the text messages were sent at random times. You know, instead of having someone constantly spying on Bruce and I. I know that it wouldn't really narrow down who sent them, but it would make me feel better to know that there wasn't someone hiding in the forest watching this place...Well, someone else hiding in the forest." She corrected herself. "I'm running a program analyzing the times that the text messages were sent to see if there is any pattern, or even a way to see if we can predict the time of a third text message."

"You think you'll get another text?"

"Probably." She shrugged with one shoulder before turning the topic back to Tony. "So, why aren't you sleeping?"

"I'm not tired."

"You look tired." She gestured to the evident dark circles under his eyes. "Have you slept at all since New York?"

"I'm fine."

"Tony, you almost died in New York. I would be more surprised if you didn't have trouble sleeping."

"I'm _fine_." He stated again, the tone of his voice telling her to drop it.

"All right. But you should know that I care about you a lot, and that you can tell me if anything is bothering you...And as someone who cares about you, I suggest you use some concealer for those dark circles -they're taking away from your hotness." She smiled at him.

"Nothing detracts from my hotness." He grinned.

"I see your giant ego is still intact."

"It's giant like a certain other thing about me." Tony wiggled his eyebrows causing Stephanie to roll her eyes.

"There are some things about you that I really don't need to know."

"Needing to know and wanting to know are two very different things."

"Moving on from the giant things about you..."

Tony smirked.

"I still think that we're missing something." Stephanie said beginning to tap her fingers on the edge of the stool that she was sitting on. "Maybe we're not looking at this in the right way."

"Ideas?"

"I don't know…If you were going to send a threatening anonymous text message how would _you _do it?"

"I wouldn't need to do it. I would just-"

"Tony." She warned him.

"I'd hide the number and in case someone could find out where it was sent, I'd make it look as if it came from a different number if the person." Tony answered. "How would you do it?"

"I guess I'd send it from a computer. Hide the signal that way –it would probably be more difficult to uncover than if it was sent from a phone."

"Maybe. Maybe not."

"Do you have your phone with you?"

Tony dug his smart phone out of his pocket. "What do you have in mind?"

"We're going to send each other anonymous texts."

"We're going to send each other anonymous texts?" He repeated.

"Yes. I want to see how we would do it and how hard they are to crack, and then maybe we'll have a better idea about how the anonymous text messages were encrypted."

"I go first, then."

"Fine."

Stephanie's cell phone beeped a few seconds later.

"That was quick." She glanced at the text message and then stared at Tony. "You sent me a text message that said 'Get me a drink', and it's not even encrypted."

"I'm thirsty."

"The fridge is five feet away." She gestured to the mini fridge to Tony's left.

"It's too far."

"I'm not getting you a drink. I'm not your helper monkey."

"I should buy a helper monkey."

"That would probably end up with you tied up in a closet while your highly intelligent helper monkey formulates a plan to take over the world like something from Planet of the Apes."

Tony stared at her amused.

"This is how I think when it's four in the morning."

"Ah."

"Anyways, back to the texts. First one to trace the signal of the other's text message has to get drinks."

"You mean that _you'll_ have to go get drinks."

"Having a rogue overly intelligent helper monkey tie you up and lock you in a closet isn't sounding half-bad right now." Stephanie mused. "But fine. We need a time limit to do this. Let's say 10 minutes?"

Tony nodded, and they both began working on their encrypted texts to one another.

* * *

Bruce walked into the lab and stopped in the doorway to survey the scene before him. Stephanie was hunched over a desk sleeping, using a quantum mechanics textbook as a pillow and Tony was fast asleep on his back on one of the tables.

An almost empty bottle of what was probably vodka was beside Tony.

Bruce wasn't sure if he should be amused or concerned at what had happened last night. Before he could think any further, a shrill beep came from Stephanie's direction.

"Tony, stop sending me text messages." Bruce heard Stephanie mumble into the textbook that she was using as a pillow.

"I didn't send you a text message." Tony sleepily answered back.

"Well I didn't send myself a text message." She mumbled back.

It took Stephanie a few moments to piece together in her foggy mind who else would have sent her a text message. Her eyes flashed open when she realized.

Glancing at her phone, she read aloud the new text.

"It says '_Do I have to use math? Bruce + you = bad. Stay away'_."

"I like math." Tony said, evidently still a little drunk, from his spot on the table.

"This doesn't make sense." Stephanie's face scrunched up in confused. "I received the other two when I had been with Bruce, but Bruce isn't here."

Bruce coughed awkwardly in his spot nearby the door. He was wearing a pair of dark pants and a crumpled gray sweater.

Stephanie's head turned towards him. Tony, who remained laying on the top of a table nearby, lifted his head to look at who was near the door.

"Bruce? I didn't see you there. How long have you been here?"

"A few minutes." He said sheepishly. "I was trying to piece together what happened." He gestured to Tony on the table who was holding a nearly empty bottle of vodka in his hand.

"It was for science!" Tony told Bruce as he sat up, propping himself up on one of his elbows.

Bruce turned to Stephanie for clarification.

"Technically, he's right. We were sending each other anonymous text messages to try and crack them to try and see if we were missing anything. But it ended up turning into a drinking game. And Tony lost." She added the last part with a triumphant smile.

"It wasn't fair -I didn't know that you could drink like a lumberjack." He pointed accusingly with the bottle of vodka in his hand at Stephanie.

"Did you seriously just compare me to a lumberjack?"

"You're wearing plaid." Tony pointed the vodka bottle at Stephanie's plaid pajama pants.

Stephanie rolled her eyes. "I'm Canadian. We wear plaid, play hockey, and drink."

"There are lumberjacks in Canada."

"Fine, but it doesn't change the fact that you're lightweight." Stephanie grinned.

"Did you find out anything new? Before vodka became involved, that is." Bruce asked, still standing near the door with a small smile on his lips.

"Kind of." Stephanie stretched her arms over her head, working out the kinks in her back and neck due from using a physics textbook as a pillow. "We confirmed that the texts were sent from a cell phone and not from a computer, but we still can't locate where the texts are coming from."

"At least that's something." Bruce ran a hand through his wavy brown hair.

"I also ran a program to see if the text messages were sent at random times instead of being sent due to you and I being together. It doesn't look like it, though." Stephanie remarked looking at the data on the computer screen to see if any pattern matched the time at which the newest text message was sent.

She gestured at Bruce to take a look at the data on the computer screen. He put his glasses on and peered over her shoulder. He could make out the familiar scent of her coconut shampoo along with the faint scent of vodka.

"You're right. The text messages seem to be sent on purpose whenever we're together." Bruce said dejectedly.

"There must be someone watching us from the forest or something to tell when we're together…But how would he know about you being here with me just now? I came down here hours ago."

"There's another possibility." Tony stated. He was now sitting up on the table with his legs dangling over the edge.

"What's that?"

"It's someone in the house."

"In the house? Tony, c'mon. Who would it be? Clint?" Stephanie sarcastically said.

"Loki."

"I already told you it's not Loki."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Thor didn't know how to work a cell phone. I doubt that Loki can."

"He could have gotten someone else to send it."

"He's isolated in a wing of the house! The only people who have seen him are Thor, Pepper, and me."

"The only people that we know that have seen him."

"You think that someone else snuck in?"

Bruce hesitated before speaking. "If it was someone in the house, it would be a lot easier to explain."

"Loki has no motive."

"You can smell the crazy on him. He doesn't need a motive."

"Let's go pay Loki a visit." Tony said, standing up.

"Fine," Stephanie consented knowing that it was useless to fight Tony and Bruce on this, especially a slightly hungover Tony. "But on two conditions."

"What?"

"We shower and change –you smell so much like alcohol that you could be mistaken for one of those worms in tequila bottles." She paused and Tony nodded in agreement. "And two, you admit you're wrong when we find out that the person behind the texts isn't Loki."

"That should be easy -I'm never wrong." Tony flashed her a grin before he walked out of the lab. "Meet in the kitchen in twenty!" He called out over his shoulder.

"You don't actually think Loki is behind this, do you?" Stephanie turned to Bruce when they were alone in the lab.

"It wouldn't hurt to look into it…"

"I guess."

"You don't sound convinced."

"I don't see why he would do something like this."

"He has manipulated us before…" Bruce fiddled with his glasses that he was holding in his hands.

"Yeah…" The memory of the argument on the S.H.I.E.L.D. aircraft that involved Bruce holding Loki's scepter popped into her mind.

Neither Bruce nor Stephanie spoke for a moment.

"Uhm, anyways, I should go shower. I still smell a little like vodka."

Bruce nodded. "All right. I'll meet you in the kitchen."

"Sounds good…But, Bruce. Are you all right? You look a little worn out."

"I'm fine." Bruce gave her a smile.

"Don't give me that smile."

"What?" Bruce looked confused.

"That's the smile you make when you're lying. Not like full-blown liar-liar-pants-on-fire lying, but the pretending-to-be-fine type of lying."

"I have a smile for that?"

"You have seven that I've noticed so far. The 'I'm fine, no really I'm fine' one that I just mentioned. One for when you feel awkward or uncomfortable. A small one for when you find something funny, but not full laugh out loud funny. You mostly use that one when Tony makes a sarcastic remark about something. Another one for when you're talking about something that you're interested in. One for when you're smiling at something to be polite. One for when you're really happy, and one that you use when you're extremely happy…Oh, wow, that sounded much creepier out loud than it did in my head. I'm blaming this on the alcohol that is still in my system."

"I can't believe that you would notice that."

"Yeah, well y'know, we've spent a lot of time together so..." Stephanie touched the back of her neck out of habit.

"You do that when you're embarrassed or uncomfortable."

"Do what? Ramble?"

Bruce chuckled. "You touch the back of your neck."

Upon hearing this, Stephanie realized that she had been unconsciously touched her neck and brought her hand down.

"I guess we both notice stuff, then." A shy smiled appeared on her face.

"I guess we do." Bruce answered smiling with the smile that Stephanie pointed out he used when he was very happy.

* * *

"'Scuse me." Clint said as he reached over Steve for the syrup.

"You might want to slow down." Bruce advised as Clint starting eating his waffles two at a time.

Clint answered what sounded like 'I'm good' through a mouthful of waffles.

"Sweet, waffles." Stephanie said while sitting down beside Steve, across from Bruce. Her hair was still a little damp from her shower. "Who made them?"

"I did." Steve answered.

"I'm impressed. Clint seems to really like them."

"Clint'll eat anything." Natasha said walking into the kitchen. "One time in Budapest he ate lángos that he dropped on the street."

"It's true." Clint nodded as if he was proud of himself.

Steve and Bruce cringed a little.

"How come you put the sticky note on my forehead last night?" Clint asked Stephanie while he was putting more maple syrup on his waffles.

"It was important. I wanted you to notice it." She told him while piercing a waffle with her fork.

"I'm surprised you didn't write on my forehead, then." Clint sarcastically said.

"I didn't have a marker." She flashed Clint a cheesy smile making him laugh. "Has Tony come down yet?" Stephanie asked Bruce while putting some maple syrup on a waffle.

"Not yet."

"He loves to take his time." Natasha remarked sitting down beside Clint who was reaching for another waffle.

"It takes time to look this good." Tony's voice came from the doorway.

"I'm surprised you didn't say that you wake up looking good." Stephanie said between bites of a waffle.

"That's true. I do look good all of the time." He acknowledged. "Ready?" He directed towards Stephanie and Bruce.

"One minute. Let me finish this." Stephanie told him.

"Where are you going?" Steve asked.

"To see Reindeer Games." Tony answered.

"We want to see if he has anything to do with the threatening messages." Bruce added.

"Are you sure you should be doing that?" Steve questioned.

"It can't hurt." Stephanie answered finishing her waffle. "Okay, let's go."

"Stephanie, I don't think that's a good idea. You could get hurt. Loki doesn't have his scepter, but that doesn't mean that he isn't dangerous." Steve pointed out as Stephanie got up from the table.

"I'll be fine, Steve." She touched his arm.

"Besides, she's going with us. We wouldn't leave her _alone_." Tony said alluding to the forest incident.

Steve's face darkened.

"Tony." Stephanie warned.

"C'mon, Berlin." Tony said to her before walking out of the kitchen with Bruce.

"Thanks for worrying about me, Steve, but I'll be fine." She shot him a smile before following Tony and Bruce to the elevator.


	28. Good Cop Bad Cop

**Thanks again to everyone who reads/reviews! There will be an interesting development in the next few chapters. Dun dun duuuun! ****Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter 28. Good Cop Bad Cop **

"Sooo," Stephanie began while she was standing in-between Tony and Bruce in the elevator. "How are we going to do this?"

Tony cocked an eyebrow. "Since we're in an elevator we'll have to do it standing up-"

Stephanie rolled her eyes. After living with Tony for a few months she knew enough about how his mind worked to see where this was going.

"I wasn't talking about having a threesome in the elevator, Tony." She interrupted.

"You should always be open to new experiences, Berlin."

"Who said that I haven't had sex in an elevator before?" Stephanie shot back.

Tony looked surprised at Stephanie's comeback. He opened his mouth as if he was going to reply, closed it, and then opened it again but no sound came out. Bruce, who was on Stephanie's right, stared at his feet feeling awkward due to the conversation that was going on between Stephanie and Tony.

"Tony Stark speechless that's a first." Stephanie commented before continuing. "Anyways, since I'm fairly certain that none of us has interrogated a demi-god before. I think that we should have a game plan."

The elevator doors slid open. Stephanie strode out of the elevator, leaving Bruce and Tony still a little shocked in the elevator.

She turned back towards the elevator when she noticed that neither had left the elevator. "Coming?"

The two of them nodded and followed her, bumping into each other when they tried to exit the elevator because they were both still surprised about Stephanie's comment.

"Should we all go in there?" Stephanie asked Tony and Bruce outside of Loki's room.

"I suppose so." Bruce answered. Stephanie could tell that Bruce was a little apprehensive about seeing Loki; he kept on rubbing his hands.

Stephanie hesitated as well. "We haven't come up with a plan yet."

"We ask questions. He answers." Tony stated matter-of-factly before reaching for the doorknob.

"I can hear you out there." Loki remarked loudly from his room.

"That's good. It means that you haven't suddenly gone deaf." Stephanie remarked, unfazed that Loki had been listening in on their brief conversation.

Tony snickered. "Shall we?"

"After you." Stephanie told Tony before putting out her arm to stop Bruce who was about to walk into Loki's room.

"You do realize that I was just messing with Tony about having had sex in an elevator, right?" She whispered to him.

"Oh, umm…" Bruce mumbled awkwardly in reply, a faint blush on his cheeks.

"Well, I was." She smiled at him before she went to stand beside Tony in Loki's room. Bruce followed her and shut the door behind him.

Loki was leaning against a desk at the opposite side of the room watching the three of them walk in. He was dressed in his usual outfit minus the helmet. The copy of _Ulysses_ which Stephanie had brought him on a previous visit laid haphazardly on the bed suggesting that he had been reading before the three of them came in.

Although a casual observer wouldn't have noticed it, Loki's eyes widened slightly in surprise when he saw the bruise marks on Stephanie's neck. "What happened, lab rat? An experiment gone wrong?"

"Something like that." Stephanie calmly answered while returning Loki's stare. His green eyes were locked on her's until Tony spoke.

"We have some questions for you."

"What if I don't feel like answering them?" Loki said with a notion of superiority in his voice.

"We'll _make _you answer them." Tony answered raising his voice slightly.

"No mortal can _make _me do anything."

Loki and Tony engaged in a staring match as if they were two dogs vying to be the alpha dog.

"Do you know what a cell phone is?" Bruce spoke up before Tony or Loki tried to rip the other one into shreds.

Reluctantly, Loki turned his attention on Bruce. "The beast finally speaks."

Stephanie noticed Bruce tense up when Loki turned his attention on him. Discretely she crossed her pinky finger with his and felt him calm down a little. However, Stephanie's little action didn't escape Loki's observation.

"The beast would like you to answer the question." Bruce said coldly.

Loki took a step forward and instinctively Bruce stepped in front of Stephanie to protect her from Loki. "Oh how quaint; the beast is in love with the lab rat." Loki let out a dry, humourless laugh.

"At least he's getting some." Tony snipped.

Loki glowered at Tony's remark. "It's never a good idea to insult the person whose help you need."

"We don't need _your_ help."

Loki ignored Tony and returned his attention to Stephanie and Bruce. "And what does the lab rat think of the beast's affection towards her?"

"I think that it's not of your business."

Stephanie's pinky remained interlaced with Bruce's.

"Why would you be with a beast when you could be with a god?"

"Are you trying to make me feel nauseous?"

"I'm willing to wager that when the beast comes out you'll turn your back on him…or should I say it?" Loki flashed a devious smile at her.

Bruce averted his eyes to the ground.

"I would never turn my back on him." She coldly replied to Loki, trying to hide how upset she was with him, before turning towards Bruce and Tony. "This was a mistake. We should go."

"Not until he answers our questions, Berlin."

"Then I suggest you make yourself comfortable since I don't plan on answering anything." Loki smirked.

"I'll just have to change your mind then." Tony replied.

"Oh, I'm so scared. Are you going to bore me to death?"

"I was thinking more of taking the pain route."

"Why don't you get that redhead of yours; I'll answer any question _she_ has."

Without warning, Tony pushed Loki up against the wall. His knuckles were clenched around the collar of Loki's shirt. "Don't you dare talk about her."

"You mortals are creatures driven by impulse." Loki calmly stated while Tony continued to hold him up against the wall.

Tony slammed Loki against the wall, but Loki only continued to stare at Tony, taunting him in silence.

"Tony." Stephanie said softly while she put her hand on his forearm and Bruce placed his hands Tony's other arm.

"Calm down, Tony." Bruce whispered.

"Bit ironic coming from you, isn't it?" Loki tried to anger Bruce, but Bruce was too focused on Tony to care.

A few seconds elapsed before Tony released his grip on Loki. However, Tony continued to glare at Loki as if he thought that if he concentrated hard enough he could make Loki's eyeballs explode.

"Maybe you should take him out of here." Stephanie said in a low voice to Bruce.

Bruce nodded in agreement.

"I'm fine. _He's_ the -"

"Tony, go." Stephanie cut-in. "Having you two kill each other won't help."

"We wouldn't kill each other._ I'd_ kill _him_." Tony clarified.

Loki scoffed at Tony's comment, and Tony shot Loki a withering look.

"C'mon, Tony." Bruce put his arm on Tony's shoulder.

"Fine." Tony grumbled and headed towards the door with Bruce following behind.

When Tony was in the hallway, Bruce paused at the door and turned back to Stephanie.

"Be careful; he's the God of Mischief." He warned her.

"I will. Thanks, Bruce." She flashed him a half-smile, and he nodded. Bruce shot a warning glance at Loki before going out to the door to help Tony calm down.

"We're finally alone, lab rat."

Loki was mere inches from Stephanie's face. His green eyes were lit up, but Stephanie couldn't discern what emotion was behind him.

"Lucky me." She remarked sarcastically before Bruce's words registered in her mind. "Wait, you're the god of Mischief?"

"I'm wounded that my reputation doesn't precede me." Loki pretended to be hurt while placing his hands over his heart.

"You can't expect everyone to be an expect in Norse mythology." Stephanie leaned on the desk behind her, distancing herself a little from Loki while he remained standing in front of her. She smiled up at him as something clicked in her mind. "That means you lie."

Loki knitted his brows unsure of what Stephanie meant by the comment.

"You're the God of Mischief which means that you must lie. So when you said that I was different, it wasn't because you knew anything about me. You were just lying. I mean, maybe you could pick up some stuff from reading me, but the point is that you didn't know." Stephanie thought aloud.

"Didn't know what?"

"That's not important and it doesn't really matter any more since everyone else knows."

"You trust them enough to have told them your secret?"

"Hey, you're not suppose to be questioning me. I'm the one who has questions for you." She dug in her pocket and held out her cell phone for Loki to take. "Ever seen one of these before?"

Loki fumbled with her cell phone for a minute trying to discern how it worked. "It's that piece of technology that Midgardian girls always seem to have."

"Ever use one before?"

"Do I look like a twelve year-old girl?"

"If I squint you kind of do."

The corners of Loki's mouth turned down slightly and Stephanie smiled, holding up her hands to convey to Loki that she was only joking.

"Why did you want to show me this?"

"I've been receiving text messages, umm, they're like mini versions of letters that show up on the screen on the phone." She explained figuring that Loki probably wouldn't know what a text message was.

"I know what text messages are."

"You know what a text message is, but you don't know how to work a cellphone? How is that even possible?"

"My brother. When he came to see me, he told me about the 'wonderful' way that Midgardians send messages and photos on small technological devices with tiny screens." Loki sighed.

"Oh. Yeah, I showed him when I was teaching Steve. He didn't mention anything about something called sexting did he?"

Loki cocked an eyebrow. "No. Is that a special form of communication?"

"You could say that." Stephanie said quickly before moving on. "Anyways, I've been receiving some…odd text messages and-"

"You think that I'm behind them."

"No. I think you that didn't do it, but not everyone shares my opinion."

"By 'everyone', you mean the beast and that insufferable man."

"Don't call Bruce a beast." She pursed her lips.

"And what makes you so certain that I'm not responsible?"

"Besides the fact that you're as knowledgable about cell phones as an eighty year-old? It's not your style."

"These messages must have frightened you for the beas-" Stephanie glared at Loki for his use of the term 'beast'. "For Banner and Stark to have come to question me."

"The messages didn't frighten me. I just didn't like what they implied.

"May I see them?"

Stephanie studied him for a moment before instructing him how to bring up the text messages on her cell.

A smile grew across his face as he read over the anonymous text messages. "Someone wants you to stay away from the beast. Apparently they have the foresight that you lack."

Stephanie scowled.

"Don't be like that, lab rat. You know that it could never work out with the beast."

"He's _not_ a beast."

"Oh, I apologize. I assumed that the big green thing that he transforms into him isn't human."

"You're more of a beast than Bruce is." She crossed her arms over her chest as if to create a barrier between her and Loki.

"Your words wound me, lab rat."

"As much as I have been enjoying talking to you, I'm going to go." She held out her hand for her cell phone.

Loki placed the cell phone in Stephanie's hand, but grabbed her wrist before she had a chance to move her arm away, and pulled her closer to him. The top of Stephanie's head reached just below Loki's chin. Stunned, she breathed in Loki's slightly sweet yet dark scent of what reminded her of blood oranges, musk, and leather.

He bent down and whispered in her ear.

"I wasn't lying when I said you were different from the rest of _them_." Loki paused before continuing. Stephanie could feel his breath on her ear. "You're special."

He then swiftly released her as if nothing had happened.


End file.
